November 2014
Welcome new member!
In the year of 2014, Sonic kept growing and developing triathletes, Coach Kenneth and our members trained hard and kept the morale up even during the quieter times! We also welcomed a lot of new faces into our family. We hope everyone enjoyed this year so far, stay healthy and injury free, and stay fit in the coming festive season!
Before we all hang up our trisuits for the year, let's recap our race season.
TriHK
Aquathon series
started in June. A number of members raced as part of their training and saw the races as opportunities to gain experience. These races took place at Siu Sai Wan, Repulse Bay and Golden Beach. Our own Peggy Lai rose to be Sonic's Aquathon Queen! She was crowned champion at multiple races in her age-group. Her hard work paid off!
Junior team Kelly Law at Siu Sai Wan Aquathon
New Aquathon Queen Peggy Lai
A number of Sonic members also took part at Aquawiz Aquathon series in order to qualify for the New World International Triathlon taking place at TST in December.
Training venue
Over the past summer, from July-October we temporarily moved our Monday run training venue to Tarma waterfront due to the construction works at the Happy Valley running track. Whilst it may not have been the best running track, there is hardly anything to complain about when running along Hong Kong's signature skyline .
Swim training continued at Wan Chai training pool every Wednesday from 8pm to 10pm. With 1 lane at the first hour for warm up and drill set, and 2 lanes at second hour for speed set.
From 10th November onwards, our Monday run training sessions resume at Happy Valley for better quality training.
New Sonic Trisuit
This year we modified our trisuit slightly in terms of design and material. We teamed up with Champion System again in order to take advantage of the fabric they use which is also used by the world's best triathletes. The one-piece trisuit conforms with ITU uniform standard whilst the two-piece trisuit is suitable for longer courses. Our trisuit seemed to have caught a fair few photographers' attention this season and sooner or later, we might even see a few members sporting it on a Saturday night down Lan Kwai Fong! Order now if you still haven't got this latest piece of fashion item.
Ironman Japan
We all know Jing Banaag is another hardcore triathlete for some time. He raced Ironman Japan at Hokkaido in August after 7 months training with us, great effort to cross that finish line as that was one of the most scenic and difficult bike course in Ironman races. He described the bike course as 10 times longer climb of Shek O Road, "1km before the finish line, I saw a line of volunteers and thought, oh dear, have I reached the cutoff time and they are all here to stop me? I was relieved when they were there to remind me to smile at the finish line!" If that's easy you would do it right?
Jing on 180km bike leg
Jing with head to toe Sonic kit
Finished with a smile!
Ironman Malaysia
Juan Delgado is another man who like to challenge himself. In Asia, if Ironman Japan is about the mountainous bike course, Ironman Malaysia is about the heat. This busy businessman and a father of 3 raced
Ironman Malaysia
in Langkawi under the searing temperature of 37C and finished in 14:53hrs!! Really well done!!
Juan Delgado approaching the finish line after a long day in the heat!
Sonic Time Trial
Sonic Time Trial kicked off in September and as always, starts with a sprint triathlon and then progressing to longer distances triathlon in Shek O, which has traditionally been a good lead up for those competing the Olympic distance at the HK International Triathlon in October, and the series usually end with a 40k cycling time trial in Tung Chung to close the season.
However, sometimes things do not quite go as planned. On 28 September early morning, a good number of Sonic triathletes with squeaky clean club kits got stuck at the entrance of Shek O Road. The entire road was closed by the police because of the tragic traffic accident which had happened early that morning.
We then quickly changed the game plan and moved to South Bay for a few quality brick sessions which was probably harder than a sprint triathlon, which ended with a very competitive tri relay.The full English breakfast and coconut water at the beach side cafe after was very welcomed.
Time Trial 2 on 7 October was a longer distance tri of about 1.2k swim 27k bike and 8k run. However, the bike course was changed to 20k back and forth Shek O and Big Wave Bay due to the road work. It was still a great way to stimulate everyone's race condition and show what we've got in our tanks!
Let's the fun begin!
Fung Yat To was the only junior and fastest overall back to the finish line. Brian won first, Osamu second and Charles placed third at Male Adult category; On Female Open, Gloria first, Gigi second and Josie placed third.
Splash n Dash!
And big thanks to our club photographer Ryan Tan for all great photos! I am sure everyone loves it!
New Sonic cover photos to showcase our new trisuit
Time Trial 3 on 16 November will be the new Mixed Relay format to replace the 40k cycling due to the constant road work at Tung Chung.
EAST Aquathon
is a new aquathon concept brought to us by Revolution-Asia featuring swim, trail running and urban running. The race was well organized with a number of major sponsors that attracted a few hundred of keen triathletes to take part. The race started from Chung Hom Kok beach, athletes swam one big 1.5k loop outside of the shark's net, then transit to 7.5k trail run across Ma Kong Shan (Twins) and 7.5k road run from Tai Tam Reservoir towards the finish line at Taikoo Place. We have a group of Sonic athletes competing at this race and conquered the twins (and more). We were all very impressed by the organizers who invited a lot of photographers to standby along the trails for scenic shots as well as the carnival like finish line set-up. What a great way to finish the race with a few beers and a couple of glasses of wine!
Getting Ready! Johnson, Charles Gabriel, Janice, Marc, Gigi, Josie
Marc on the climb
Haka dance!
HK International Triathlon Asia Cup
This race is the signature race for local triathletes. This year, the race was co-organized by TriHK and MetaSports who brought us new routes for the swim and run legs. Some of us saw this as their race of the year, some of us took this as their tapering race in preparation for Ironman 70.3 Taiwan which was exactly one week after. Great results were displayed by Sonic, for the Olympic distance, young man Sam Fok took this race as a warm up leading to Ironman 70.3 Taiwan and ranked 5th at 20-24 AG; Sonic veteran Lee Yingho ranked 10th in 50-54 AG; New member Alex Marly also completed his first triathlon before attempting Challenge Phuket Half Iron distance in December; Jing Banaag took a different approach and raced the Olympic distance as a recovery race after his full Ironman in August. Gabriel Lau and Osamu Yamagata also finished the race after EAST Aquathon one week ago.
Alex Marly on bike leg
More great result from sprint distance triathlon, junior member Fung Yat To took a time off from national squad and won 2nd runner-up in 16-19 AG; Derek Kuk ranked 7th and our Club Secretary Charles Hui and Leung Hin Long also ranked 6th at their respective AG; Johnson Chan and his wife Peggy Lai also ranked 7th and 6th respectively; Peggy had made significant improvement since joining our swim training. Former national team member Eddy Poon also made his come back to this sports and ranked 12nd at his AG;
Eddy Poon back to Tri
On junior categories, Tam Nga Man ranked 4th and Kelly Law ranked 8th at Girls Youth Open;
Fantastic result by Josie Ling who won 2nd runner up at her age-group. The graphic designer transformed herself from a trail-runner into a triathlete and dedicated herself to our training sesesions in 2014, this was also her first sprint triathlon race.
Josie Ling - First Tri and Podium finish
Great photos from Ryan Tan was uploaded to our album
. Also big thanks to Gloria for
and Gigi Wong to man the booth and provide refreshments at the Sonic tent.
Ironman 70.3 Taiwan
Fantastic Five!
Coach Kenneth and a few Sonic veterans namely Kent, Charles, Eric, Brian and Sacha travelled away to race at the Ironman 70.3 Taiwan at Kenting on 2nd November. We had the perfect race condition, crystal clear water, mild wind and it was not too hot at some point. We all came home with good results other than Brian who was the unlucky one who DNF due to a mechanical issue with the bike. He was forced to keep calm and Tri-on!
Congratulations to Eric coming 5th in his age group!
Sacha on the run
Leading to the off season
November is the time of winding down the triathlon season in all part of the world except for Australia and New Zealand. Let's take time to review the past season, sit back a little bit at training. Look for a new goal in 2015, and don't forget to spend some quality time with family and friends.
Farewell to Michal Bucek
Bucek aka Fabio has been with Sonic when he first moved to Hong Kong in 2006, with the ambition to race as a professional to represent his country in ITU circuits. After a lot of trial and error, he found his joy at longer courses, crowned age-group champion in Ironman China in 2010 and qualified for a slot at Kona as his career highlight. His style (pink with a ponytail) and character (well, pink with a ponytail) quickly became an icon in triathlon scene, his dedication and performance secured him a permanent place on the podium and he quickly became the talk of the town. He is the one who would overtake you on the bike at 45kmph whilst leaving a trail of Hugo Boss aroma which lingers for a good while, he is the one who would shave his legs for Sonic Time Trials, and he is also the one who raced PRO but fell off (in front of a camera) during T2 at an Ironman race!
Now this sports talent is going to back to Slovakia for a new chapter. We wish him all the best in his new venture and we will always remember the joy and pain he shared with all triathletes!
Bucek debut in Asia - 2006 Macau ITU
Bucek in underpants run at Kona 2010.
Bucek and Gigi in Ironman 70.3 Philippines 2011
Sonic Mixed Relay Gigi, Bucek, Andy, Kent in Sanshui ITU 2011
New chapter, new hairdo, same Bucek
Aquawiz International Triathlon
On 30 November, the signature race by Aquawiz will take place in TST for their 2nd edition of urban triathlon in Hong Kong. The transition and finish line will be close to the coffee shop area along TST's water front, it will be very exiting to watch triathletes doing what they do best with the beautiful Victoria habour as a backdrop, some of our members will also be racing, go to give support with a cup of coffee in case you had missed the entry!
Challenge Phuket
Our up and coming triathlete Alex Marly will be racing at Challenge Phuket for half iron distance in December, it will be his first attempt at long distance! Good luck and enjoy the process! Don't miss the post race party!
Ironman Western Australia
Our very own Tri-God Sacha Cheong will also racing his third full Ironman distance at Western Australia in December, off season may not be applicable to this busy triathlete!
Sonic 11th End of Season Party
We are also looking for a date and venue in this busy festive season! It will be food, drinks, awards, lucky draw and more drinks! All party girls and party boys, stay tuned!!
Thank you for reading.
From the Secretary Office