Recognition Awards – Club and Volunteer of the Year

Club of the Year and Volunteer of the Year are awards that define what is best about triathlon.

Encouraging others to reach for personal achievements, giving structure and guidance (and sometimes even a sympathetic ear) so that the progress outpaces the set-backs; and above all, fostering a sense of community so that triathlon becomes more than just something you do on the weekend.

These are qualities we would all like to see encompassed by our clubs and volunteers.

It was fitting therefore, that when the process of selection for Triathlon Ireland Club of the Year and Volunteer of the Year was completed, both awards would go to the same corner of Tyrone.

 

TriLimits + Mark Farquhar

TriLimits is a very young club. But in the five years since its inception, it has had an enormous impact on those who have been lucky enough to call themselves TriLimits members.

And while the achievements of TriLimits are testament to the hard work of numerous people throughout the club, everyone agrees that Mark Farquhar has been the driving force behind TriLimits’ remarkable rise.

The selection of TriLimits as Club of the Year and of club Chairperson Mark Farquhar as Volunteer of the Year was were made according to pre-determined criteria and in isolation from one another.

However it is perhaps no co-incidence that both awards went in the same direction and so we will attempt to outline the reasons for the awards in a single article.

Club of the Year

The Club of the Year award seeks to identify triathlon clubs which have performed in an outstanding manner over the course of the last 12 months. 

This year the judging criteria were amended to take in to account the unusual circumstances with a 70 per cent weighting going towards initiatives the club staged to maintain engagement during Covid-19, 20 per cent weighted towards evidence of good governance and a final 10 per cent weighted towards any other grounds the club could produce which would indicate why they should be your club recognise.

During the summer, 26 newcomers – 19 of whom were female – tackled their first ever triathlon in a TriLimits training event. The day was the culmination of many months of training – sometimes in person, and when Covid forced a lockdown – online. Given the difficult spring everyone had endured, the event created enormous pride, with reports of tears of joy, smiles and loud cheers from watching relatives and friends.

Throughout the year, TriLimits encouraged members to look after their mental health – an initiative that became more and more important as Tyrone endured many months of covid-19 restrictions. The club created a programme entitled Strong Mind, Strong Body and organised meetings with a local mental health charity. The role of Wellbeing Officer was created this year and 29  club members attended initial Mental Health awareness training.

TriLimits is a club with strong family values and signed up for the 20×20 charter. In fact female members now outnumber males. The club has completed all the requirements for Triathlon Ireland bronze accreditation, it has developed a five year strategic plan and is committed to an action plan in 2021 following its annual members survey.

Volunteer of the Year

Many in the club credit current chair and coach Mark Farquhar for setting the tone and being the driving force for the clubs achievements.

Mark received countless nominations but it was the quality and not the quantity that saw him proceed to win the award.

One email in particular illustrated some of the reasons why Mark is the 2020 Volunteer of the Year.

“He is kind and supportive, a living and breathing ambassador for triathlon. Always progressive and excellent his growth mindset be inspires us all to commit and achieve attainments we would not have dreamed off. Life changing!!!!”

“However, it is the mentorship of my son which I am most grateful for who under Mark’s guidance has went from a PlayStation devotee to an amazing triathlete and who has followed Mark’s example and is now volunteering in the club helping others to help themselves!!!” 

Mark’s clubmate Joanne McDonald describes him as a mentor and the person everybody goes to for advice.

“No matter what you ask him to do, he supports you. He has a lovely personality, I could quote his wife, he’s like a graceful swan on top of the water and underneath the water he is moving so fast!” 

When asked about his and his club’s achievements, Mark Farquhar was quick to praise his club mates for how they tackled a difficult year.

“I think certainly people have stepped up to the mark more this year than before. Our committee meetings are actually better attended and some people have stepped up to lead because we know we have to break things down into parts. We can’t have any more than 15 people together so that requires more leaders and the members are just just stepping forward.”

Mark said that when the Covid lockdown began in March, he felt it was important to maintain club activities while remaining within the guidelines.

“I know with my own work with people with disabilities, that it’s so important to keep social contact, to keep people together so I was determined that we wouldn’t just let things drop this year more so than any other year.”

When asked about his own achievements, he was self effacing and fittingly, shifted much of the focus back on to his club.

“I just try to do my best and really try to give it everything. But look, it’s a great community, everybody’s so friendly, everybody’s so helpful. You just you just want to try and get the best out of people.”

“I don’t think people see TriLimits as a club. It’s a community and it may sound like a cliché, but we really do have a great thing going here. Covid brought us even closer together this year, even though we weren’t able to always see each other.” 

Triathlon Ireland congratulates Mark and TriLimits for their fantastic achievements and commends them for working to hard to maintain a strong community during 2020.

Across the board this year, the quality of the submissions for Club of the Year and Volunteer of the Year were extremely high, something that made the selection process exceedingly difficult. We would like to thank everybody that took the time to submit a nomination for each award and commiserate with those who were not successful.