Hunter's Best

Newcastle Foreshore Triathlon

The Newcastle Triathlon Club's Annual Newcastle Foreshore Triathlon is on Sunday 3rd February on the harbour foreshore.

LInks:
To enter
Race Briefing and Start
Race Day Info
Course Details
Results

Major Sponsors: Xerox Business Centre and Southern Cross Ten.

Supporting Sponsors: Redback Solutions, Rebel Sport, Broadley Signs, Sticky Advertising, Newcastle Avanti Plus, Breeze Swimming & Fitness, Dalton Partners, Jetset at The Junction, Mizone Rapid

Hunter's best Olympic hopes

Source: Greater Building Society

Some of the Hunter’s best hopes to make the Australian Beijing Olympic Games team have today received some much needed financial support for their preparations with today’s announcement of the 2007-2008 Greater Building Society Sport Scholarships at South’s Leagues Club.

Ten athletes who have shown tremendous potential in their chosen Olympic sport have been awarded a $1,000 scholarship. They will also receive advice from Hunter Academy of Sport consultants in areas such as sports psychology, nutrition, physical fitness, injury prevention and injury treatment.

Stoner a perfect 10 in sweltering Sepang

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Feeling "dizzy" in the steaming heat, world MotoGP champion Casey Stoner clung on to snare his 10th win of the season in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Stoner led from flag to flag on Sunday but nevertheless said he found it difficult to focus at times and made several unforced errors - one which almost spelt the end of his race.

The 22-year-old, starting from second on the grid at Sepang, smoked away at the start to head the pack into the sweeping right-hand turn and was never headed. He was hounded early by Honda's Dani Pedrosa but effortlessly controlled the tempo of the race to claim his second straight win after the Australian GP a week earlier.

The Ducati ace crossed the line 1.701 seconds ahead of Italian Marco Melandri's Honda with Pedrosa third.

Five-time world champion Valentino Rossi, who started from a lowly ninth on the grid, picked his way through the field to finish fifth behind Frenchman Randy De Puniet. Suzuki rider Chris Vermeulen was seventh while fellow Queenslander Anthony West, who had qualified fifth, again undid the good work with his second jump start in three races and a ride-through penalty left him in 15th.

Newton heading to Hull KR

Source: The Press Association

Hull KR are set to sign Melbourne Storm enforcer Clint Newton after he was forced out of the Australian club by a salary-cap squeeze.

Newton, a key member of the Storm's 2007 NRL team, has announced he will join the mass of Australian stars playing in England after agreeing to a two-year deal with the engage Super League club.

The move will complete a rollercoaster six months for the 26-year-old back-rower, who joined the Storm mid-season following a public spat with Newcastle Knights coach Brian Smith.

Newton is disappointed to be leaving the Storm but is excited by his next challenge.

"I've had a great time at the Storm and I'll always be grateful they gave me the chance to continue playing in the NRL when I left Newcastle," Newton said.

"I can't speak highly enough of the club and if there's a chance of playing for them again in the future, I'd definitely be interested."

Newton has been released after fellow Melbourne back-rower Jeremy Smith rejected a lucrative three-year offer from the St George-Illawarra Dragons.

Boyd wonder - Maitland Triathlon

Source: JOSH CALLINAN, Maitland Mercury

A calf muscle strain, a slight bit of misdirection and the death of a friend last week was not enough to keep Boyd Conrick down.

The Redhead athlete overcame adversity and shot to the lead with a strong bike leg to win the middle distance event at the 14th annual Maitland triathlon at Morpeth yesterday.

Conrick, who knocked off work at Cardiff Fire Station an hour before racing, said he thought his shot at winning the race was over about 2km into the 8km run leg when his calf muscle tightened up.

“I thought I was gone,” Conrick said.

But Conrick battled on despite the injury, which he first sustained in San Diego about 15 months ago, and didn’t allow his competitors see his pain.

“About 3km into the run I stopped around the corner so Timmy (second placed Tim Porter) could not see me and I rubbed it out,” Conrick said.

“It (calf muscle) did not tear but I had the feeling it was going.

Josh Ross returns to Maitland coach

Source: CECILIA PEOPLES, Maitland Mercury

The prodigal son of the Hunter athletics’ scene, Josh Ross will return to the stable of renowned Gillieston Heights' trainer Tony Fairweather.

Australia's fastest man Josh Ross will return to the Hunter Valley after a heart-to-heart with former coach Tony Fairweather this week, has seen the pair reunited 10 months out from the Beijing Olympics.

Ross, 26, has returned to the Gillieston Heights-based coach 12 months after leaving Fairweather "heartbroken" when the sprinter left suddenly last October to join Sydney-based coach Emil Rizk.

There were several things Fairweather needed to hear from Ross when they met on Wednesday, 12 months to the day since they parted ways, to discuss rekindling the partnership that ended so abruptly after five years.

They parted on good terms but it was never going to be a straight-forward decision for Fairweather, who 12 months ago described the Athens Olympian's decision to leave as "gut wrenching".

Newton, Knights in talks over return

Source: Andrew Webster, leaguehq.com.au

THEY didn't want him in May. Now, the Knights are set to meet with Clint Newton about the stunning possibility of bringing the premiership winner back home.

Yesterday, Newton stepped off a plane from Thailand, where he was celebrating with Storm teammates, to learn that Newcastle chief executive Steve Burraston wants to talk to him - possibly as soon as Monday.

The development provides a glimmer of hope that the back-rower will return to his former club just five months after coach Brian Smith told him he wasn't considered a "valuable asset".

Newton declined to discuss the prospect of returning to the Knights when contacted yesterday and said he wanted to stay at the Storm.

But that is becoming less likely by the day, with the premiers scrambling to find enough money to fit him into their groaning salary cap.

Homecoming hero wows massive crowd

Source: Warwick Green, The Age

HAVING gone over the handlebars during qualifying on Saturday, Casey Stoner needed a couple of painkillers for his aching back before launching his Ducati across the starting line yesterday.

Forty-one minutes and 12 seconds later, he was feeling no pain, having won the Australian MotoGP for the first time.

As he took the chequered flag, wife Adriana clambered in her high heels onto the concrete pit wall, joining the red throng of Ducati mechanics and officials who pumped their fists and hollered a dominant victory.

It was the first time she had celebrated in such a manner, a spontaneous gesture in recognition of the significance of this win to her husband.

Adriana said later that they would join about a dozen friends for a low-key dinner on the island, and "have a pretty early night — that's just Casey".

Stoner would celebrate his 22nd birthday tomorrow by catching a flight to Malaysia for the penultimate leg of the MotoGP series, in Sepang on Sunday.

Stoner became the first Australian to win the event since Mick Doohan in 1998, and as he returned to pit straight, a huge section of the 50,425 poured over the fences and milled under the podium balcony.

Hunter triathlon series adds more weight for athletes

Source: CECILIA PEOPLES, The Maitland Mercury

Sunday’s Maitland triathlon will now boast added importance to some competitors, with the event to kick off a new ‘Hunter Triathlon Series’ in an attempt to encourage triathletes from around the region to race locally.
H Events’ race director Paul Humphreys was recently given confirmation that the Maitland event would kickstart a new four-race series called the Hunter Triathlon Series.

The four races will be Maitland triathlon, Newcastle Olympic-distance triathlon in November, Newcastle Foreshore sprint event in February and Sparke Helmore/NBN triathlon at Newcastle in March.

Humphreys said the performance of Newcastle-based competitor Nathan Stewart to win three of the Hunter’s main races last season was the “catalyst” for him to introduce the concept, which has been popular in Sydney.

To be eligible for the series, competitors must race in three of the four events and individuals across each age group earn points from each race.

Clubs in the region will also earn points towards an overall club award, with Hunter clubs including Maitland, Tomaree, Singleton, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.

“The point system rewards people on their performance not just their place,” Humphreys said.

He said while most attention in the sport was often on the elite competitors, a series such as this helped cater for the non-elite competitors and encouraged them to race locally.

The Maitland event was given further good news this week with Louth Park’s Brendan Sexton confirmed to race in his hometown event on Sunday.

Sexton has enjoyed a solid international racing season, highlighted by a silver medal at the world triathlon championships in the under-23s at Germany in August.

Bellamy wants Joey on board

Source: Brent Read, Fox Sports News

CRAIG BELLAMY last night confirmed his interest in having Andrew Johns on his coaching staff as NSW attempts to end Queensland's two-year stranglehold on the State of Origin series.

Bellamy, whose appointment as coach was announced yesterday, is yet to determine his assistants but made it clear he would like to utilise the brilliant football mind of Johns.

Johns, who retired in April with neck problems, has distanced himself from the game since admitting to drug use and depression in August. However, he is still regarded as one of the sharpest thinkers in league and Australia coach Ricky Stuart used him as a sounding board in an effort to help Test five-eighth Greg Bird in recent weeks.

Given the lack of certainty over the NSW halves positions leading into next season, Johns' input could be invaluable for a Blues side looking to avoid three successive series defeats.

"I would certainly be interested in having him but I know he will have some obligations with Channel Nine next year," Bellamy said.

"He's the best player I have seen in the game and he deserves to be treated with respect. I would love to have him on board and we would be mad not to use him.