Victorian's Jenny Hosking, Stephane Vander Bruggen and Rohan Phillips were last night recognised at Triathlon Australia's Celebration of Champions Dinner on the Gold Coast.

For her mentorship of other Technical Officials at a local level demonstrating the values that Rob George displayed, Jenny Hosking was awarded the Rob George Award. Jenny has shown extraordinary commitment to the technical program in both regional and metropolitan Victoria. She has contributed to the recruitment of Technical Officials (TOs) through presenting regional and local TOs courses for the last three years, as well as mentoring graduating technical officials from these courses.

In 2014/15 alone, Jenny officiated more than 20 events (both regional and metro) as well as sanctioning 44 events. She is currently a member of the Triathlon Victoria Technical Committee and Triathlon Victoria Board. Jenny won the 2015 Triathlon Victoria Technical Official Award and was a shortlisted finalist in the Victorian Government’s Community Sport & Recreation Awards 2015 (Community Umpire or Referee/Official of the Year).

   

Pictured in the Middle: Jenny Hosking

Last night, Rohan Phillips was recognised by Triathlon Australia as a Legends of the Sport. Before becoming a triathlete, Rohan Phillips had more than ten years experience as a cyclist. Reading in an American bicycling magazine about cyclist John Howard’s third place finish at Ironman Hawaii in 1980, then hearing about Howard’s 1981 win, Phillips was inspired to enter the event. He had moderate success as a runner at school, but no swimming experience whatsoever. Phillips first plunged into a pool four months before his debut triathlon, the 1981 Nautilus Melbourne Triathlon, which he won. The winner’s prize was a ticket to compete in the February 1982 Ironman Hawaii. Swimming inexperience probably thwarted Phillip’s overall placing on the day, although he managed the twelfth fastest bike time with two punctures. On the run he happened to find himself keeping pace with Julie Moss as she ran into the lead, and then as she began to struggle he gave up on his own objectives and stayed with her. Not only did he witness the dramatic end of the women’s race (when second placed woman Kathleen McCarthy passed Moss as she crawled across the finish), Phillips was also in the television footage of the race shown repeatedly on sports programs around the world.

Back in Australia, Rohan Phillips went on to launch an unbroken winning streak over a period of approximately twenty months. Among his Australian wins, were the 1982 Hastings triathlon and 1982 Geelong Endurathon, both inaugural events, the 1983 Ocean Grove Triathlon, the Sri Chinmoy Triathlon held in Adelaide in March 1983, the second Hastings Triathlon, the first Gold Coast Triathlon in May 1983, the 1983 Melbourne [Nautilus Triathlon] and the 1983 XXXX Coral Coast Triathlon in Cairns. The winning streak only ended in November 1983 when Phillips competed in the second Geelong Endurathon just one week after racing in Hawaii.

Phillips brought an independent approach to the challenges presented by triathlon; he wore skin suits made by Hillman Cycles long before others picked up on the idea, bolted cycling shoes to his bike pedals to make transitions quicker, and kept a nutrition diary. In 1984, as President of the Diamond Valley Triathlon Club, Phillips, together with Mark Cera and cyclist Wayne Deller, staged the Kew Boulevard Triathlon. The following year he competed in the 1985 United States Triathlon Series, claiming a number of top ten finishes and a win in the Los Angeles Triathlon, before returning to cycling in the second half of the 1980s. By then his renowned debut at Hawaii, his innovations and his victories over all of Australia’s best triathletes, including wins at many inaugural triathlons, made Phillips’ brief career the stuff of triathlon folklore.

 

Pictured: Rohan Phillips

 A nominee for the Triathlon Australia Age Group Coach of the Year and the Triathlon Victoria Age Group Coach of the Year is Stephane Vander Bruggen from Geelong Performance Coaching. Stephane originates from Belgium and spent many of his early years racing triathlon there. It is in Belgium through the influence of his parents that he fell in love with the sport. A natural competitor Stephane became a student of the sport always searching for ways to give him an edge over his competition. This constant study and striving for improvement has naturally progressed into a passion for coaching triathlon and it’ individual disciplines.

In 2014, he helped produce 4 Australian Age Group Champions, 2 ITU Age Group World Champions and 5 ITU medallists, he has also helped many athletes get to the start line of their first triathlon with a smile on their face. The Age Group Coach of the Year was awarded to Corey Bacon (NSW) and Ross Pedlow (WA)

Pictured: Stephane Vander Bruggen

 

A full list of award winners is available here.