Wow that was a busy end of April into End of May!! There so much to tell you about, so I won’t hesitate, lets’s jump straight in, because there’s lots to cover!
Safety Rescue course – At the end of April when the lake wasn’t as warm as it is now, a dozen hardy souls met at Queenford to get some training from the experts at Rapidskills.co.uk in how best to support members with safety at our open water swims. It was a really informative session, where we practiced what to do in an emergency and how to get a non-responsive casualty to shore. Skills that will definitely benefit all of us IF the worst were ever to happen. On that point, we’ll need to do a bit more practice from time to time throughout the summer so do be prepared for a drill to test our readiness!!
Member Only Open Water Swims – Its always a highlight of the season when we can reopen the lake for open water swims and I really hope you’re enjoying the relative warmth we’ve had this year for May!!
A couple of reminders:
1 – NO SIGN UP… NO SWIM – If you haven’t signed up on the website to swim on a Weds evening or Saturday morning you will not be allowed into the water. It’s imperative that we know that anyone in the lake is a current, paid up member who has therefore signed our open water swimming waiver and we have access to your emergency contact details. The session will still be open to sign up during the session so if you forget, it should still be possible to sign up on arrival at the lake.
Sorry still on Admin… If NO Safety 24Hrs in advance the SWIM WILL BE CANCELLED. We now have the safety sign ups open for many weeks in advance, so you can pre plan when you can cover safety. If we don’t have one safety person signed up 24hours before then the session, we will have to cancel the session at some point during the day. Of course we’ll do a few checks, ask on the Facebook group and WhatsApp channel (see link at end if you’re not on it) to try and make sure this doesn’t happen. As long as one person signs up the second safety person might have to come from one, or two, of the swimmers who turn up to the session. Our procedures and protocols don’t allow an open water session to go ahead without one person on the shore and another on the water providing safety.
Sorry to be so beaureacratic but I hope in this instance you understand the importance, but if you want to understand more, talk to one of the committee members, also maybe read this article.
Pre Blenheim Swims – I just want to say a massive thankyou to all involved in this major fundraiser for the club. The coaches, anyone who helped with parking, registration, assisting swimmers we simply couldn’t do it without you, thankyou so much for all you did to make our guests feel welcome and introduce them to our exciting sport. I have to save a special mention to Craig Bathgate for coordinating all the pre event admin and marketing with the Blenheim Triathlon newsletter, without that we wouldn’t have had the numbers we did, thankyou Craig.
We’d Love to know your thoughts? Did it go well either for you as a participant or as a coach/helper. of course we’re always looking out for new ideas to make these sessions better. Or maybe you have an opinion about running 5 sessions including a Wednesday evening? Again we’d love to hear your thoughts and views, please drop me a line at chair@oxfordtri.co.uk or speak to anyone on the committee (see website if you’re not sure who that is).
Club Series 2025.
This weekend see’s the next Oxford Tri Club Championship Series Race
The Oxfordshire Tri Series – Sprint, taking place on 15th June, it looks to be a nice weekend so those who are racing – make sure you are well prepared and hydrated.
The Oxfordshire Tri Series – Olympic is the next race, taking place on 17th August, with Reading Tri on 14th September. Don’t forget we’ve got exclusive discount codes for these races, available on our website (under Discount codes – Partners & Discounts). So, whether you’re new to triathlon or a seasoned competitor, get ready to swim, bike, and run your way to glory! Will you have what it takes to claim the title of Club Champ at the end-of-season awards?
Oxford Tri club Aquathlon 16th July 7-8pm
On Wednesday 16th July at the club Queenford lake swim we are holding an aquathlon along side a BBQ and Beers social evening!!
Distances: Swim 400m, Run 2k approximately.
Format: Teams of 3. All 3 swimmers complete followed by each team member completing run leg.
Injured? No worries another member of your team can do your swim or run leg (whichever you are unable to do).
Once the racing is over you can enjoy a beer and burger at our BBQ!
We will put the teams together and inform you of your fellow team members.
You can name your team if you wish 😊
There will be a sign-up page on the club website a few weeks before.
Please note: there will NOT be the usual 7-8pm open water swim.
We hope you can make it!
Member Socials/BBQ
We have 2 summer socials planned at the lake with Beers and BBQ, these will be Wednesday 16th July after the club aquathlon and Wednesday 3rd September. More details to follow.
Meeting Minutes – June 2025.
Please see the website for the April Committee meeting minutes – these are draft minutes until approved at our next meeting. Please log on to the club website, find committee and then minutes.
Whatsapp Broadcast Channel – For those who don’t use Facebook we also have a WhatsApp broadcast channel, this is only for urgent messages, like cancelling a session due to bad weather, or other urgent notes that can’t wait for the next newsletter so please consider joining the channel via the following link!!
https://chat.whatsapp.com/DmtuJAQOisB94XfqMnFGJj
Member Achievements
There have been literally so many Highlights since we last had a newsletter, too many to mention really so I’ll focus on one which for me has to be the Blenheim Palace Triathlon weekend!! Everyone who volunteered made Transition, Swim exit and the Brownlee Activation area the best run parts of the event!! So many faces to see and chat to and then on the Sunday seeing a dedicated OxfordTri wave go off in the actual event gave me goosebumps actually, see our Facebook group for photos and videos. There were some amazing performances especially as the weekend included the British National Sprint distance championships, we had a number of our club members in the mix, unfortunately none of us could quite make the podium in the British championships but we did have 4 x fourth places!! Congratulations to Fran Gomez, Ami Hodges, Jane Bell and yours truly, it was certainly fun taking part in draft legal racing even if the hilly course did make it quite difficult to do so!!!
The Ox Aquathlon 2026 – Can you help make it happen?
Last month we hosted the Ox Aquathlon at Leys. The event was hugely successful despite only being in its 2nd year. There was a 722% increase in participation with the inclusion of juniors for the 1st time seeing over 150 athletes signed up across the categories. Over 45% of athletes who fed back about the event rated it 10/10. Finally, it brought in over £1000 which is invested back into the cub and opened up new partnerships with local businesses. Here’s is one of the bits of written feedback to help sum it all up.
“We are so grateful – what a super event you have put on! It was our first experience of anything like this for our sons aged 8 and 11 years old. Everything, from the email details and the welcome and kindness of all the volunteer staff, through to the lovely wooden completion medals was fantastic. It was all so well organised and such a lot of fun. The Compere and music were great and the atmosphere was so upbeat. We will really be looking forward to another one of these and joining the Triathlon community. Thank you again.”
To make 2026 happen we are looking to gather a group of people share the organisation and delivery of the event. Craig who has helped create the event is moving away later this year, however he has indicated that he is happy to share his knowledge and support where possible. If you would be interested in finding out more with regards to helping make this amazing event happen again, please getting in touch with Craig via events@oxfordtri.co.uk
As a club member there are many other ways you can get involved.
Come to sessions and socials – meet fellow members, check the calendar for venues, timings and sign-ups.
Become a coach or leader – speak to Sean Nicolle if you are interested leadcoach@oxfordtri.co.uk
Share planned runs/cycles on Facebook if you are happy for others to join you – https://www.facebook.com/groups/oxfordtri
Volunteering –Now that the busiest period is over, we still need help to make the lake swims run smoothly, we hope that we can all volunteer at least once for lake safety support, either on water or land. Sign up is open lets get all sessions covered well in advance