Janurary - April 2012

We finally step into April with the warmer weather and seeing the sunshine after the long cold, wet and dark off season from January to March. However, it also the beginning of the rain season so check the weather forecast before you head out for a ride, you don't want your smoothest ceramic bike parts to get wet!

Many of us had been taking some time off from training after lot of racing and still enjoying good result from last year.

Mary Galvin - new swimmer

Out of Shape Charles - nobody behind

Same for the Sonic Editorial office, our Sonic Newsletter editor Elizabeth Galvin (Lizzie), who keep doing our swim carrying her baby last year, gave birth to her first baby girl in last December; Charles Hui also got very engaged at his work and skipped lot of training in the first quarter. Both have resumed their 'duty' and get back to training routine, Lizzie has recovered very quickly and she will do Splash n Dash race in stronger body! Charles also signed up number of races and now you're reading their first Club NEWSletter in 2012, finally!

Now, showing you two pictures, cute little baby Mary on the right, out-of-shape Charles on the left doing Singapore Biathlon.

So we all back into the action, how about you?

Duathlon Series
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Michael Lam in Duathlon 1

Three duathlons were held by TriHK to kick start the 2012 race season. The first was on 15 January in Shatin and Sonic celebrated with two wins by junior members. Michael Lam came home first in the male youth open category in a time of 49.37 and Kelly Law won the girls’ 2000 age group, in just over an hour, two minutes clear of the next competitor.   

Ivan Yeung

Other notable finishers included Ivan Yeung who was sixth in the men’s 30-34 age group. In the age group above, Hang Chan finished just inside the top ten. Young Hei-Cheuk Kong also competed.

Gigi Wong

Stephenie Bina

A month later in the second race of the series it was another win for Michael Lam but Kelly Law had to settle for silver. Senior women were represented by old friends Stephanie Bina and Gigi Wong who chased each other to come fourth and fifth respectively in the 30-39 age group. Other places included Christopher Tong, ninth, in the 40-44 age group with Ho Lee, fifth, in the age category above. Other Sonic competitors included Dreyfus Koo, Charles Hui, Christopher Chen and Marco Lai.

Ivan in the wet Duathlon 3

Michael leading the pack

The third and final event moved from Shatin to Brides Pool Road in the very wet rainy morning, with Ivan ninth in the 30-34 category, Hang Chan tenth in age above and Christopher Tong fourth in the 40-44 category with a fast bike leg. 

The Next Best Thing - MICHAEL LAM!

Sonic grown junior Michael Lam was interviewed by Sports Soho magazine! Work hard all the way Michael, be our next Alistair Brownlee!

March 3: Singapore Navy Biathlon
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Held at the East Coast Park on 4 March, more than 2200 participants competed in the 12th Singapore Biathlon where New Zealander Dylan McNiece successfully defended his Men’s Open title and Singaporean Clara Wong won the Women’s Open. For Sonic, the competitors were Charles, Lyn and Frederic who completed the 1.5km swim and 10km run course in the blistering heat.

Few of us fly to Singapore for visiting Sonic Singapore branch members and doing this aquathon, they called it 'Biathlon'. It's always a challenging swim in East Coast and the 10k run in the East Coast Park is a pleasure, we've done this race with Frederic, Adelyn and Tim Cosulich, with super cheering team of Gigi and Joey-Lynn! It was also nice to meet some familiar Sonic friends in the race! Also to Tim's smashing 4th overall finish!
Click THIS for the race website, well organized and highly recommended!

Fred pushing Lyn to finish together!

Tim pushing toward 4th overall finish

Left to Right: Charles, Su Mei, Brian, Dave, Joey, Gigi, Fred

March 19:  Ironman 70.3 Singapore

People trend to agree with the statement that Singapore is another active City in terms of organizing sports events,  2 weeks after the Biathlon, another group of Sonic fly there for a more hardcore event - Ironman 70.3.
Andy Patrick maintains his top form won 2nd runners up in 50-54 group, Tim Cosulich continues his success after Singapore Biathlon and won 1st runners up in 30-34 group, ranked 16 overall before his farewell to Asia, also ticket to Las Vegas World Championship!

Sacha finishing his 2nd Ironman 70.3

Tim could be a star

Sacha Cheong finished his 2nd Ironman 70.3 with his super bike, Evangeline done this race as a preparation to her Busselton 70.3 in May.

BIG thanks to the strong supporting crew by Joey-Lynn, Adelyn and Ren!



March 31 - April 3: Sonic Training Camp Nam Ao
--> Coaches Kenneth and Kenji led the annual Sonic training camp in Nam Ao, Shenzhen in late March and early April. The miles were clocked up for swimming, biking and running - and participants also learnt about nutrition and stretching. The hotel and the beach in Nam Ao is surprisingly beautiful according to the team's reporting. Water quality is good and they also enjoy doing bike training with Kenji from the quiet highway to the mountain area in Nam Ao!
Coach Kenneth also instructing the afternoon swim after the long ride in the morning! 

Girls team in the middle of bike training

Swim in Nam Ao

Kenneth: Keep going!!

Training! Training! Training!
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Thanks to Coach Kenneth and Alan Tam for their hard work coaching us for the past few months with a focus on speed training. Coach Alan Tam has introduced some tough sessions especially circuit training – and capitalized on Sonic members’ competitive natures by setting up relay sets in the pool, pitting the fast lane and the super-fast lane against each other! Training quality is being enhanced, ensuring no junk miles on that 1 hour run and 1 hour swim during Monday and Wednesday.

For example, this is the swim band drill we've been doing during January, e.g. 16 x 100m swim band, classic!


Love it? or Hate it? Hang in for 1 or 2 months, you will know when you do race or simply put on the beach wear!

Welcome new members to Sonic in 2012: Kathleen Berroth, Hok-Hang Chan, Christopher Chen, Thomas,Aoife (Eva) McGillion, Rubery Sally,

We keep updating the member list. And it's still growing!!

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Socials: Lamma Seafood lunch

Two tables worth of hungry Sonic triathletes travelled to Lamma Island in March for a sumptuous seafood feast. Thanks Gigi Wong for organizing. Watch out our mailing list for any social gathering!

Left to Right: Rita, Kim, Gigi and Yoji in Seafood lunch

A boat ride to Lamma

Road Bike Rental from Victory Cycling Workshop
Sonic dedicated bike shop and mechanical service Victory Cycling Workshop offers road bike rental services, they have some proper road bike could lend to our members who like to try out the Shek O training.
You have to arrange picking up the bike before Saturday 7pm and return to their shop before Monday 7pm.

Contact Jobar at Victory Cycling Workshop

Address :
G/F,Tung Fat Building, 39 Kam Ping Street, North Point, Hong Kong
Tel: 2578-7766

Sonic Time Trial
The date is set! Sonic Time Trial is a internal race, members of Sonic can score point from each Time Trial and overall Top 3 men and ladies will be awarded in the Sonic End of Season Party in December! It's a chance for Sonic members to meet and social especially whose don't normally see in our regular training! And you can also see these Time Trial as your pre-race preparation!!

We will remain organize FOUR Time Trial this year.
No registration is required, just show up, detail route map will be posted prior the event.
May 20: Shek O Sprint Triathlon
July 22: Shek O Aquathon
September 23: Shek O Triathlon
October 28: Tung Chung 40k Bike

Club Kits Order for the summer
Any members who want new club kits, trisuit, cycling jersey, please send me the form and payment from this link: http://sites.sonicsports.org.hk/Home/club-kits-2008
Lead time will be around 1 month.

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Upcoming races

Get your calendars and credit cards out for the many races in Hong Kong and around the region including:

Shaun Mullen in Vietnam Tri

Revolution Asia’s Splash and Dash series kicking off on Sunday 13 May, www.revolution-asia.com

Events listed on www.triathlon.com.hk include the Festival of Sport Age Group Triathlon in Plover Cove on 6 May, Triathlon Championships on 3 June at Shatin and the Aquathon series throughout the summer in July, August and September. 

A few of Sonic also signed up the Bintan Triathlon on 27 May, and also Bangkok Triathlon on 3 June.

14 September: MetaMan Bintan Iron Distance Triathlon, the Southeast Asia Championship, Bintan, Indonesia (55 minutes from Singapore). See Sonic’s Shawn in action at last year’s event!

We're sure Sonic will be very busy training in this summer and see all these races as a good lead to Ironman 70.3 Philippine on 5th August and Ironman 70.3 Taiwan on 4th November!! 

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And don’t miss the amazing chance to win two entry places into the Laguna Phuket Triathlon on 25 November including two nights’ accommodation through TriMag Asia.

 HOW?!
1. You need to be 2012 Register member of Sonic Sports Associations. (some of you still too busy to renew)   
Sonic Register member list as of 2012 March
http://sites.sonicsports.org.hk/Home/sonic-list

2. You MUST LIKE Sonic facebook page!!! (I am sure you do!)
http://www.facebook.com/sonicsports

3. You MUST ALSO LIKE TriMagAsia facebook page!!! 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TriMagAsia/130031940403123

TriMag Asia will then close their eyes and draw two members based on the above criteria!! I think they will announce the lucky one around mid-late April.

What is LPT?!
LPT is Laguna Phuket Triathlon where Team Sonic members had been participated since 2005, it has been grown as 10 days Tri-Festival week in Phuket during the race week in adjacency to Phuket 70.3 Ironman race. 
http://www.lagunaphuket.com/events/triathlon/index.php

LPT 2012 takes place Sunday, 25 November 2012 at 6.30am.
Registration opens on 1 April 2012.
The Laguna Phuket Triathlon is Asia's premier destination triathlon featuring a unique 1.8K swim, 55K bike and 12K run through spectacular tropical scenery. Over the past sixteen years the popular race has attracted thousands of age group athletes as well as triathlon legends Mark Allen, Greg Welch, Craig Alexander, Paula Newby-Fraser, Michellie Jones and Chrissie Wellington, to name just a few.

OKAY! Stop holding your remote control, even though EUROSports is showing European cycling race every night, Giro De Italia is also on May! See you at our training, our Time Trial or in the races!

Yvan in HK Triathlon 2011

Lastly, to those who knows Yvan Corno, a tall Frenchman has been training and racing with us since 2009, he is taking his time off from the Triathlon training because he recently ill and has been diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia (cancer of white blood cells), he is now undergoing chemotherapy treatment in Hong Kong hospital. Some of us pay a visit to Yvan, he is in good triathletes spirit to fright with the cancer, visiting is allowed but limited to avoid unnecessary infection. Though he can be reached by email yvancorno@yahoo.com or Facebook. He is staying in touch with our mailing list and he is following everyone in Sonic, "Besides family and career, doing Triathlon with Sonic is one of the reason for me to get over it." says Yvan.

Yvan crossing finish line with his boy

After the rain, the sun will shine again.

Yours
Charles Hui, Elisabeth Galvin
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Upcoming Races

May 6: Tri-HK Age-Group Triathlon
May 13: Splash n Dash 1  
May 20: Sonic Time Trial 1
May 27: Bintan Triathlon
June 3: Tri-HK Sprint Triathlon Scrience Park
June 3: Bangkok Triathlon
June 10: Splash n Dash 2
June 24: Splash n Dash 3
July 8: Tri-HK Aquathon 2 - Repulse Bay
July 22: Sonic Trime Trial 2
August 5: Ironman 70.3 Philippines
August 26: Tri-HK Aquathon 3 - Golden Beach
September 9: Tri-HK Aquathon 4 - Discovery Bay
September 23: Sonic Time Trial 3
October 14: Tri-HK Hong Kong ITU Triathlon
October 28: Sonic Time Trial 4
November 3: Ironman 70.3 Taiwan
November 18: Sanshui ITU
November 25: Laguna Phuket Triathlon
December 2: Ironman 70.3 Phuket