The fourth edition of the Brighton and Hove Triathlon is coming back on the 15th of September, taking place on Hove Lawns.
This event is not exclusively for adults, and children are highly encouraged to come along as a way of encouraging them to get active.
Inspired by his two children, John Lunt, the Race Director, organised another event alongside the triathlon, in which children as young as 3 are able to take part in the competition.
Scootathlon (scoot, bike and run) first took place in 2002 when John’s children were only 4; at that time he was organising 43 events every year as a founder at Human race.
In the early days, we had to think of something to keep the kids active whilst my wife and I were working the events. I also wanted to introduce them to multi-sport activity, some element of competition and an outlet for their energy.
In those days, schools were encouraging the idea that there were never any losers, but a lot of children are naturally competitive so I wanted to give them an opportunity to race. As Triathlon includes a sea or open water swim, we couldn’t put 3 or 4 year olds in a lake so the swim element was always going to be an issue for small children. However, because of the wide range of abilities in children we had to think of an alternative. My thought process was that most kids can run, will have a bike in their shed and many have a scooter too, so I came up with the idea of Scootathlon.
John Lunt
There will be three different distances, one for each age group:
- 3yrs – 100m scoot / 100m bike / 100m run
- 4yrs – 200m scoot / 200m bike / 200m run
- 5-8yrs – 300m scoot / 300m bike / 300m run
All kids have to do to participate is to bring their scooter, bike and a helmet. The course is safe and there will be experienced crew to supervise the kids during the competition. At the end of the day the children will received a t-shirt and a medal for participating.
Last year we had 140 children aged between 3-8 years of age racing along Hove seafront and the atmosphere was fantastic, some really competitive spirits out there on the course. They really put their heart and soul into it and hopefully some of these children will go on to do our children’s triathlon now they have had a taste of multi-sport with the scootathlon.
John Lunt
This year’s Scootathlon will take place on Saturday 14th September at noon on Hove Lawns. To find out more about Brighton and Hove Triathlon you can visit their website, and for further information you can contact Andria Rudy on 07810 283098 or at [email protected].
Photos credit: Brighton and Hove Triathlon on Facebook
