The 2017 edition of the Hog’s Hervey Bay 100 Triathlon will happen in Hervey Bay on the weekend of 18/19 November. This will be the 7th running of the event, which has grown to become a huge draw-card for competitors and visitors to the Fraser Coast. The Hervey Bay Triathlon Club started the event back in 2011 with the purpose of putting on a ‘racers race’ with a small club feel. The calendar timing was chosen to help the local community generate some income during the traditionally slow period between the whales leaving the Bay and the Christmas holidays starting.

In 2016 the main race on Sunday attracted 630 competitors, with many times that amount of people accompanying athletes to town, and giving the locals some exciting racing to watch along the beautiful esplanade. The growing ‘Huntingdale Super Saturday’ race program included junior races in all age groups including the Wide Bay School Sport trials, and a senior “Have-A-Crack” event for those new to the sport with over 200 athletes racing.

In 2017, the Hog’s Hervey Bay 100 event will include a brand new and unique race. On the Saturday, 180 intrepid swimmers will board a Kingfisher Bay Resort barge and cruise across the calm waters of Hervey Bay, to be dropped into the water at a point 2km offshore from the race precinct at Scarness Park. This event is proving to be successful in continuing the ethos of the club in bringing people to our region. At the time of printing, more that 50% of people entered in the swim are coming just for the swim event and not just for the Triathlon on Sunday. The skilled and professional members of the Hervey Bay Surf Life Saving Club will be on hand to provide water safety for this event, and all the swimming happening across the weekend. Without these members, the racing could not go ahead. We would also like to thank Kingfisher Bay Resort for sponsoring/supporting the Barge swim.

Many community and sporting clubs benefit from the race coming to town also. In 2016 more than $5000 was paid to groups of volunteers who carried out jobs from manning road blocks, caring for athletes at aid stations to cutting fruit and providing ice to athletes at the finish line. TAFE Queensland East Coast not only supports these ‘Hundy Heroes’, but the students from the massage program at the Hervey Bay campus also are part of the race in practising their freshly learned skills giving the tired athletes a rub down once they have finished the race. Just another way that the whole community is involved and benefits from this race.

This year there will also be a celebrity feel, with V8 Supercar driver Will Davison coming to race, along with his partner, Riana Crehan who is a commentator with the V8 Supercars series. They will enjoy the best the Fraser Coast has to offer, staying at the fabulous Oceans Resort and heading off to the skies to check out Fraser Island with our own local celebrity triathlete, owner and pilot for Air Fraser Island, Troy Geltch.

Big credit goes to all the members of the Hervey Bay Triathlon Club who put countless hours into this race for the benefit of our local community. This event also couldn’t happen without the support since its inception from Shaun & Hayley Campbell at Hog’s Breath Café. Other supporters of the race are Huntingdalewoods Estate, Bendigo Community Bank Hervey Bay, Dare2Tri, Marty Leahy Concreting, Infinit Nutrition, Custom Bike Fit, Handy Hire, Scody, Art By Rebecca Jane, Lyfestyle24 Gym and The Beach House Hotel. Significant support in financial and logistical contribution also comes from the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

Written by Jeffrey Morris