Tri Limits named Ireland’s Club of the Year

TRI Limits Triathlon Club was awarded Club of the year 2022, at the prestigious Triathlon Ireland Awards held on Saturday night, in the Alex Hotel, Dublin.

The accolade is just rewards for the local club, which serves Dungannon, Cookstown and Armagh, and is another honour after they scooped the Race of the Year award for their increasingly popular Tri Tyrone event in both 2020 and 2021.

While they missed out on a hat-trick in that category this time around, they did claim the Club of the Year title, thanks to the judges decision after they investigated Evidence of Good Governance, Evidence of Community Engagement, Evidence of Club Activity and Membership Support in each nominated club.

The Club of the Year award identifies triathlon clubs – be it small, medium or large – which have performed in an outstanding manner over the course of the last 12 months.

The award was decided by a panel of Triathlon Ireland staff members and a representative from another national federation on foot of nominations from clubs.

The award was presented to Tri Limits Club long-serving chairman Mark Farquhar, by the CEO of Triathlon Ireland Darren Coombes.

MC of the night Joanne Murphy complimented the club on their great community spirit, 50/50 gender balance, the promotion of women into sport, mental health support to members, development of a new youth section, putting on a top-class race event, cross community work and excellent sporting and governance standards.

And Farquhar, who will soon step down from his role of chairman after seven years in the position, was delighted that one of his last jobs was to collect the prestigious award.

“We’re delighted,” he beamed. “It’s great, it was a very, very good night.

“We were shortlisted for Club of the Year and Race of the Year and we can’t complain that Dublin City Triathlon Club won Race of the Year because they put on a great race but we’re absolutely delighted to win Club of the Year.

“And the reception we got from all the over clubs, they were saying we deserved it. You do try to put in a lot of work over the year and it’s nice to get that recognition.

“It was really nice and it’s possibly going to be my last official duty as chair because after seven years I’m stepping down at the end of this season.”

While Farquhar’s leadership will be missed by the club, he’s confident that his successor will continue to guide it forward and it will continue to develop and thrive.

“It will be someone else’s turn and hopefully they will be lifting plenty of silverware in the future,” he said.

“You have to keep freshening things up and I’ve been doing a little bit of succession planning because there are plenty of good people in the club to take it on.

“I think it’s important that you freshen these things up and shorter I think would be better. Three years is probably long enough in nearly any organisation and while I want to stay involved and remain on the committee I’ll have to be very disciplined to let a new chair flourish rather than butting my nose in!

“But I’ll be there to provide a wee bit of experience if and when it’s needed.”

Even without his role as chairman, Farquhar has plenty to aim for in 2023, having qualified for the World Middle Distance Championships in Finland in August.