14 students from Halswell competed in the Canterbury Triathlon at Pegasus. Harrison Sugrue placed in the Top 20 at 14th in Year 7 Boys. Here is a report from the Year 6 girls that competed.

On Wednesday 14 kids from Halswell School competed in the Canterbury Triathlon at Pegasus. It was flooding with freezing cold rain but it was still on. The butterflies in our tummies felt real and our nerves were so big they took over us! We could hardly talk. Everyone was worried about something either the swim, bike or run. Once we got there we had to set up our transition with some help from the parents. We set up a gazebo and had lots of tarpaulins to keep our bags dry from the rain. The loudspeaker was saying “Can all year 5 boys and year 5 girls please come to the marshalling area to get you transponder and number.’ This went in year levels. They called for Year 6 girls we were really nervous. We had to stand in line for about 20 minutes. We started moving to the beach in our waves. We got into heats of 15 then we got to have a little splash in the water to warm ourselves up. We lined up and then ready, BOOM! The guy clapped the clappers together and we were off swimming in the freezing cold water. It felt so cold you could freeze. There were surfboards with lifeguards on, all around the lake in case we needed a hand. When you started swimming it was a massive rush. It was challenging because you could hardly breathe because of the iceberg cold water. It was hard to swim because people kept pulling and pushing each other underwater. We jumped out of the water and ran to get our bike. For the transition we had to dry our feet and put a top and helmet on. You had to do this quickly so you got a good start. The Year 5 and 6’s had to bike 5.4 km and the Year 7 and 8’s had to bike 10.8 km. The run was next! Our legs felt like jelly once you had completed the bike. We ran around the edge of lake and finally the finish line was in sight. We sprinted to cross the finish line then VICTORY!!!!!!!! We had made it! A huge thank you to Tracey Henderson who was team manager on the day and came into school and ran trainings for us.

By Courtney, Jaime, Maia and Zara.