Club History
Ful-On Tri Club had its first formal training session on 10th April 2003. The Club was formed by a group of athletes following on from two successful 8-week triathlon swim training programmes run by Bill Black at Holmes Place Fulham Pools for Holmes Place members and their friends. The decision to form a Club was led by three founding members and BTA qualified coaches - Alan Hanley, Chris Spink and Julia Tregaskis.
Initially the Club only met once a week on Thursdays for a swim session followed by a spin bike or run. The Club's founder members many of whom made up the Club's first committee were: Alan Hanley, Alan Hocking, Alice Gilks, Chris Spink, Conan Gibney, Deon Moss, Ed Stone, Gareth Davies, Jenny Morrell, Katrina Johnson, Nick Ludlow, Nick Sullivan, Rob Tubbs, Siobhan Brownlow, Sophie Timms and Suzannah Moss.
Once we'd settled on the name Ful-On Tri (suggested by Gareth) from numerous suggestions (which included Tri-Ful!) and logo design (by Siobhan), the Club applied for BTA affiliation in August 2003, formed a committee and went about the business of accepting members. From our initial group of about 15 athletes training together the Club has now grown to over 250 members and has numerous training sessions throughout the week.
Throughout the development of the Club, we have been lucky to attract members who enjoy training and racing together, but never lose their sense of fun!
Ful-On Tri's Ongoing Development
The Club is currently working towards BTA STAR Club Status (Senior Triathlon AccRedited Club). To gain accreditation, the Club must fulfil criteria in the areas of club management, coaching and competition, equity and ethics, and health and safety. Once all the criteria are fulfilled and assessed by the London Region Development Officer, the Club will be awarded STAR status and will be able to access a number of benefits including regional funding and workshops.
In addition, the Club has embarked on a Club Development Programme to ensure we have sufficient BTA qualified coaches to cater for the needs of all our athletes. Subject to Committee approval, the Club reimburses part of the coaching fee for existing and prospective coaches who have demonstrated their commitment to coaching at the Club.
We were successful in our application for an Awards for All grant in 2005, and received the maximum grant of GBP 5,000 to fund a new Wednesday night bike turbo training session. The money was used to purchase 20 Club turbos, hire the facility and fund coach education and development.
Ful-On Tri ran its first Club Championship in 2005 which determined the awards for Best Male and Best Female Triathlete of the Year, and we continue to run the Club Championship each year following on from this success. Full details of the Championship rules and current rankings can be found under the Race Results section.
Ful-On Tri in the "Buff"
In line with the Club's characteristic sense of fun, Club members got their kit off for a fundraising calendar in 2006 to raise funds for the charity ASPIRE which supports people with spinal injuries, and also for the Club. The project was co-managed by Gavin Bradley and Siobhan Brownlow and a calendar sub-committee: Ed Crosse, Emily Reynolds, Jo Knight, Madalyn Roker, Sarah Clark, Stuart Anderson, Tarne Bevan and Vicki Grimshaw. The 'models' wish to remain nameless. Our efforts raised GBP2,340 for Aspire and a similar figure for the Club.
Special thanks go to our photographers: Toby Merritt and Daniel Becher, our cartoonist: Giles Pilbrow whose cartoons also adorn these web pages and to Tri and Run for online sales.
For posterity, the twelve images selected for the calendar are shown below:
