April - May 2013

Hi all Sonic boys and girls,

We are going into the race season, is your training on track? Have you met your goal or training objective you've setup in the beginning of the season? Or you've been training well and just need a Sonic race suit for the upcoming races?!

Sonic Trisuit 2013

You've been waiting for too long!
The new trisuit design and supplier finally confirmed after a lot of research!!
This time we will appoint O2 Creation be our Trisuit supplier for 2013.

• Simplistic design, against those over-engineering and avoid too 'bling' pattern in the local triathlon scene.
• Based on the O2 Creation finest and fastest Performance Trisuit fabric with Teflon coating.
• Asian fits figure, I have a few test run & swim and very happy with it.
• No padding, best for OD triathlon or shorter distance race.
• Junior version: same design, Lyra fabric, more affordable costs.
  
• Price: Adult version: $1200, Junior version: $600
• How to order? Fill in ORDER FORM and payment, send back to Charles Hui by 2nd June. Size Chart
  
• To maintain Sonic professional image, we only print FAMILY NAME on the trisuit.
  
• Lead time: 2 months.

O2 Sonic Trisuit for Women

O2 Sonic Trisuit for Men

What's next on the club kits? It will be our 10th anniversary T-shirt and 2 piece long course trisuit, stay tuned!

Sunday Shek O Training

Once again, our famous Shek O training will only be organized in non-race day, if there is a race organized by Tri-HK, Splash n Dash and Aquawiz, we will go to race. An email reminder will be broadcast prior the weekend.

Race Recap

The weather in April and May is unusually chilly and rainy this year. It actually setup a comfortable temperature to start some races for the season! 
We have a small representation on the race opener Aquathon race 1 at Kowloon Tsai Park, the only one swimming pool Aquathon in Hong Kong and a lot of waiting like in the swim meet, then you can demonstrate flip turn and run in the park, fast and furious! Sonic veteran John Fung challenged the elite open (in fact it was mistakenly entered) and won his first medal in Aquathon for 1st runner's up! Gigi Wong continues her performance and crowned age-group champion, new member Colin Hannah won 1st runners up in Aussie style. More photos on Facebook contributed by Ryan Tan.

Collin Hannah

Gigi Wong

Jones in action

Happy to see Yvan come to cheers up and smell the sweat!

John Fung and his first win

Edwin Wong in action

Two weeks later, we had the Sonic Sprint Triathlon Time Trial 1 in Shek O for everyone to warm up and race rehearsal, it was an overcast morning and strong wind pick up the Shek O wave that's always the signature of Sonic TT. Sonic Juniors smashed the course, Fung Yat To was the first boy crossing the finish line, Tze Chun Yin and Wong Pak To after, age-grouper Sasha and Edwin hardly closed the gap. see RESULT and RANKING  The post-race hyper was on the lucky draw sponsor by 2XU Hong Kong.
Thanks Brian and Gigi for the photos.

Ready to roll!

Small draft pack in Shek O Road

Lucky boy who got he grant price 2XU transition bag

May was a busy race month, three races in a row, kick off by the Tri-HK Age-Group Triathlon on 5th May. It was a showcase for our Junior team coached under Kenneth.
 
On the same weekend, we have two Sonic veteran Brian and Eric completed the debut Challenge Taiwan half-distance Triathlon at Tai Tung. The event itself was nicely organized with a lot of positive feedback, we should plan another trip for this event in 2014.

Challenge Taiwan swim course

Eric and Brian at Challenge Taiwan

Splash n Dash by Revolution Asia also kicked off their Aquathon series on 12nd May at Repulse Bay, from this year, they start the club, company and school ranking for the series, after race 1, Sonic ranked 5th after the up and coming South China Triathlon Team while elite coaching team '26 Coaching' is leading the series. We did have a few strong Sonic certified amphibians who keep us at 5th! Both Collin Hannah and Jeannette Wang crowned age-group Champion, young gun Dreyfus Koo won 1st runners up, Sonic veteran Ian Brownlee won 2nd runners up respectively.
Let's work harder for race 2! Photos by Danny Chan

Jeanette in action

Leo Fai in action

On the startline

Sonic needs to work harder!

 
One week later, it's another Aquathon series kick off by Aquawiz Hong Kong at Repulse Bay. They have a more creative swim course where we have to swim a 1.4k outside of shark net from west to east plus a short run back to the beach area for another 400m swim within the shark net back to the west end. 1.8k swim and 7.5k run is also the very fair distance for two disciplines, you can't complaint that's the swimmer or runner favorable race.   

Repulse Bay always looks pancake flat until you swim far out and feel the current

Within the Team Sonic, we have solid representation in the race despite the thunderstorm warning on the race morning, Colin Hannah smashed his age-group and crowned champion with $500 price money in the pocket, Edwin Wong and Eric Chan maintained the solid performance, Adelyn Cheong and Evangeline Quek treated this as tapering race before the Ironman Kona 70.3 in one week, Gabriel Lau, Osamu, Charles Hui, Leo Fai and Walter Yiu also did well in the race.
Photos by ChopsticksDiaryPhotography

Edwin Wong on the run

Eric Chan maintains his form

Gabriel Lau is chasing

Leo Fai in action

Adelyn Cheong tapering for Kona

Osamu keeping his form

Colin Hannah dashing for his victory

Aquawiz Aquathon Race 2 will be in Science Park on 23 June, same date with Splash n Dash 3.
It will be the selection race if you'd like to enroll their Hong Kong Habour Triathlon in December! Sonic will fully support Aquawiz events, sign up now!

How are you doing?

Congratulation to Ren Ho tie the knot with Su-Ching Teh on 22nd March in Singapore, some of the closed Sonic friends were invited and it was the gorgeous wedding. This new couple is now settled in Shanghai and Ren continues to squeeze time on training.   

I should get a better pictures of the couple

Sonic Re-union in Singapore

Some workout at MacRitchie trail is a must

Our Sonic two times Triathlete of the Year, Gigi Wong diagnosed with hyperthyroidism with some nodules were detected during the recent medical check-up. She is now under medicine treatment and will be away from racing for a while. She is very positive and maintaining light training volume to stay in shape. Send her a blessing on Facebook or gigiwon@gmail.com

Adelyn at her first Ironman 70.3 Taiwan

Adelyn Cheong will also very soon say goodbye to Sonic after her six months deployment to Shanghai, she will pursue the new opportunity in Amsterdam. Meanwhile, she will be travel back and fore Hong Kong and doing some races and training.

Looking ahead

Tri-HK Sprint Triathlon at Science Park on 2nd June, start list already on triathlon.com.hk
Sign up Splash n Dash 2, Aquawiz 2, our affiliate triathlon club Titan Triathlon is organizing another swimming pool Aquathon in Yuen Long, it features a 750m swim around four post at the pool and 5k run. Sign up at their website

So, what's next? Sign up the those local races, come to training, order your trisuit, and see you on the track, in the water, on the road or in the races! 

cheers,
Charles Hui

Upcoming Races (local, oversea)

June 2: Age-Group Sprint Triathlon 
June 9: Splash n Dash 2 (entry open)
June 23: Splash n Dash 3 (entry open)
June 23: Aquawiz Aquathon 2 Science Park (1500m + 9k) (entry open)
June 30: Titan Aquathon Challenge (750m + 5k)
July 7: Aquathon 2 - Repulse Bay (entry open)
July 21: Sonic Time Trial 2 (open to all members)
August 4: Aquathon 3 - South Bay
August 25: Aquawiz Openwater - South Bay
September 1: Aquathon 4 - Lei King Wan (Island East?!)
September 21: Beijing International Triathlon
September 22: Sonic Time Trial 3
September 29: Weihai ITU Long Distance Triathlon
October 6: Aquawiz Openwater - Deep Water Bay
October 27: HK ITU Triathlon - Disneyland
November 2: Taiwan Ironman 70.3
November 3: Sanshui ITU Triathlon
November 9: Phuket ITU Triathlon
November 10: Aquathon 5 - Golden Beach
November 17: Sonic End of Season Time Trial
November 24: Laguna Phuket Triathlon
December 1: Challenge Laguna Phuket

2013 Sonic Time Trial 1

Our Time Trial Series kick off this Sunday!!

You can see this as a brick training;

You can see this as a race rehearsal;

You can treat this as a race!

Please extent invite to your friends.

The first Sonic Time trial in 2013 will be on 28 April, coming Sunday.

Registration: 7:30am
Briefing: 8:00am

It will be a sprint triathon in Shek O beach.

Distance & format:

Swim: 2 laps in Shek O Beach; Start from lifeguard tower,  to swim around 3 platforms, back to beach and head for 2nd lap.

2 laps in Shek O Beach

 Bike: 2 laps on Shek O Road; Start from T1 > Big Roundabout > Tai Tam roundabout > Big Roundabout > Tai Tam roundabout > T2

2 x Laps on Shek O Road

Run: 1 lap Shek O >  Big Wave Bay Carpark > Shek O carpark

Turn around at Big Wave Bay car park

Sonic members will be scored, overall top3 men and ladies will be awarded in the end of year party.

Lucky draw to follow!

Janaury - March 2013

Stepping into 2013, the workload on my daytime job is overwhelming, as the Club Secretary for Sonic I am reaching capacity that I lost track on my training and Sonic administrative works, apology for all the delay response or the inquiry was going to nowhere, leaving this space a bit quiet in the winter time. Also missing all the reminder to members to enroll the Duathlon 1/2/3....
Nevertheless, Coach Kenneth is maintaining his quality coaching to Sonic with the new responsibility as a father and busy Hong Kong Regional squad coach. We also have more new members joining our training and maintaining the atmosphere, thanks for the members get members, hopefully they will be ready to sign up some races in the coming season and take up the triathlon drugs.

Season Opening

The season of 2013 will be kick-off by the warm up race of Aquathon 1 at Kowloon Tsai Park for 400m swim and 4k run, season opener age-group triathlon on 5th May is also opening registration from triathlon.com.hk make sure you have completed the membership registration so you can sign up online and represent Sonic Sports Association in this season!

Watch out for some of the members keeping the consistent off-season training, they will probably be dancing in the coming race season.

Website in maintenance...

Our website is currently down, please visit our Blog or Facebook page for any update.
Or visit this link for the time being: https://sites.google.com/site/sonicsports/Home

Sonic Sessions

Age-Group training as usual on Monday and Wednesday 8pm-10pm at Wan Chai Training Pool for circuit & run training and swim squad.

Brick Training is back to Shek O starting from 21 April from 7:30am-10:30am as Sonic tradition until the end of November.
We have some arrangement for Sunday training considering the balance between the interested of members who keen to keep Sunday brick sessions and doing race.
Hence, Sonic will fully support local races organized by Tri-HK, Aquawiz and Splash n Dash, coached Brick session will ONLY be organized on non-race day. Please check Sonic Calendar.

Sonic Trisuit and Club kits

We are refreshing the one-piece and two-piece Trisuit and we hope the new design will be confirmed by the end of April.
Cycling kits, running jersey is not changing, to order, please send us the form: https://sites.google.com/site/sonicsports/Home/club-kits-2008

Sonic Time Trial Series

Time Trail Swim start in 2012 season

Sonic Time Trial is an internal race, members of Sonic can score point from each Time Trial and overall Top 3 men and ladies will be awarded in the Sonic End of Season Party in December! It's a chance for Sonic members to meet and social especially whose don't normally see in our regular training! And you can also see these Time Trial as your pre-race preparation!!

No registration is required, just show up, detail route map will be posted prior the event.

April 28: Sonic Time Trial 1 (Shek O Sprint Triathlon)
July 21: Sonic Time Trial 2 (Shek O Aquathon)
September 22: Sonic Time Trial 3 (Shek O Triathlon)
November 17: Sonic End of Season Time Trial (Tung Chung 40k bike)

Thanks for reading,
Charles Hui

Upcoming Races (local & oversea)

April 14: Aquathon 1 - Kowloon Tsai Park
April 28: Sonic Time Trial 1
May 5: Age-Group Triathlon (entry open)
May 5: Challenge Taiwan
May 12: Splash n Dash 1
May 26: Aquawiz Aquathon 1 Repulse Bay  (1800m + 7.5k)
June 2: Age-Group Sprint Triathlon (entry open)
June 9: Splash n Dash 2 
June 23: Splash n Dash 3
June 23: Aquawiz Aquathon 2 Science Park (1500m + 9k)
July 7: Aquathon 2 - Repulse Bay
July 21: Sonic Time Trial 2
August 4: Aquathon 3 - South Bay
August 25: Aquawiz Openwater - South Bay
September 1: Aquathon 4 - Lei King Wan (Island East?!)
September 21: Beijing International Triathlon
September 22: Sonic Time Trial 3
September 29: Weihai ITU Long Distance Triathlon
October 6: Aquawiz Openwater - Deep Water Bay
October 27: HK ITU Triathlon - Disneyland
November 2: Taiwan Ironman 70.3
November 3: Sanshui ITU Triathlon
November 9: Phuket ITU Triathlon
November 10: Aquathon 5 - Golden Beach
November 17: Sonic End of Season Time Trial
November 24: Laguna Phuket Triathlon
December 1: Challenge Laguna Phuket

New Promotion Leaflet!

New Year, New You, New Promotion!

Looking back 2012

Year 2012 was a difficult year of Sonic. We have slightly setback in membership base, drop in training participant, affecting the team moral. And health alert of our french member Yvan who've been diagnosed of cancer.

Nevertheless, Yvan's YC campaign lead by some of our volunteers was a huge success, we thank you Frederic for the heavily involvement and Jeanette for reporting on the SCMP that raised a lot of public awareness, we also thank you to George and Teresa, Chris and TT who helped extending awareness to the dragon boat participants and giving leaflet to the public. All the effort made Red Cross became so busy and filled with all the kind heart for registering bone marrow donation. Miracle did happen and the bone marrow transplant in October, read the story from last ClubNEWS.

Meanwhile, I do want to say thank you to some of us whose make Sonic still standing strong as of today; We thank you to Eric who always show up at training in all seasons; We thank you to Kenji who always help on coaching our training camp; We thank you to Anson who help keeping the attendance record and facilitate us to design new flexible payment scheme; We also thank you to coach Alan Tam for delivering hardcore training for first 3 quarters; We thank you to the parents of our juniors whose always supportive to our junior program; At last we thank you our coach Kenneth Yip for all the time coaching us.

Our 9th End of Season Dinner was a great success, happy to all happy faces like doing the 'Hong Kong Style' hotpot that put all the raw meat in the pot! Thanks Sacha and Emily contributing some bottles of red, and thank FlyingBall and SportsWorld to make our lucky draw so fruitful!

Coming up in year 2013, we are stepping into 10th years of anniversary of Sonic! It will continue to be a challenging year. There are more training group in the Hong Kong Tri scene, more opportunities for new comers doing triathlon training. We can't be lazy, we will re-produce promotion leaflet for both adult and junior training, we will make 10th years anniversary team kits, we will recruit more new members, we also need everyone involve to make Sonic a great 10th years, make it count and make it brilliant!

GBR became the 2nd population of Sonic in 2012

Family Photos from the 9th End of Season Dinner

Time Trial Series Men winners

Time Trial Series Ladies winners

Sonic Triathlete of the Year 2012

King of the Hill - Tai Po

Trail Running, 14.75k 'Half' Mountain Marathon where 1250 meters cumulative elevation gain race course, how would you expect to finish running this?

Three of the Sonic joint this mountain marathon event for half-marathon distance in the unusual warm December. You know how tough is the course if the first batch of finishers took about 2hrs to complete the course, it is quite a good workout for our triathletes during off season!

Sacha Cheong 2hrs50
Andy Patrick 3hrs08
Gigi Wong 3hrs34

Well done!

What happen if the reservoir leak and you still have to spend 3 hrs in the mountain?

2013 January age-grouper training

If the end of the world is not happening, our training will carry on! We will move to Sun Yat Sen pool due to the annual maintenance of Wan Chai Pool in January 2nd - 30th, 2013.

Monday and Wednesday
8pm-9pm, Run training at Sun Yat Sen Park
9pm-10pm, Swim traning at Sun Yat Sen Pool, 2 lanes

Farewell to Shaun and Louise Mullen

We farewell to this couple Shaun and Louise, they have been training with Sonic in recent two years, Shaun has also been featured in some race leaflet cover with our bling Sonic Trisuit.

Sadly, they are moving back to London for better career opportunities and we will certainly miss them, and will soon catch up with them in any race in London or Asia.

Shaun at MetaSpots Vietnam Triathlon cover

All the best to our superman!

Welcome new coach! Baby Yip!

Welcome new member! BIG Congratulation to our coach Kenneth and his wife Yoji's first baby arrived on 5th December! This small baby is loud and clear if he cry! Prove he has a good lung!!
Very soon he will become a good iron-kids, triathlete and then our coach Yip Sir!!! Congratulation!!!

July - November 2012

All the races are over and now we can enjoy Christmas and a happy new year!

We’ve done number of small and big races over the last few months – finally it is the off-season and time to celebrate our achievements (or take this time to think about what could be improved for year 2013!).

Goal-setting
Many of our age-groupers will spend time with friends and family but if you’re really itching and aiming for improvement, you could set up some goals for next year to work on.

• Look at the race calendar in 2013 and ask yourself following the questions:
• What races would you like to do? List them in priority order (A to C) – from a major "A race" right down to a training "C race". 
• List three to five training objectives you’d like to achieve – such as finishing an open-water swim of 1.5k in 30 minutes or a 21k run at 5-minute pace.
• Keep your goals realistic and achievable, share your goals with coach Kenneth and share them with us - we’d like to hear from you and help plan to achieve your aims.
• Review your goals mid-season to see if you’re on track.

Who knows, this method of goal-setting could apply to other parts of your life, too.

What we have done in last few months?
Round two of the Sonic Time Trial (Shek O Aquathon) was held on 22 July in choppy conditions. A good number of brave souls turned up to conquer the four-loop swim in the washing-machine-like water of Shek O before completing a 4k run. Coach Alan led all the way and was the first man cross the finish line, with Andrew Patrick and junior Eugene Wong coming in after him.

Sonic Time Trial 2 on the start line

Sonic Time Trial 2: The team start the work!

In early August some of the Sonic team flew to Cebu Island for the Ironman 70.3 Philippines, see the race recap.

Sonic Time Trial round 3 conflicted with the newly organised Sports Soho Airwave Triathlon on 23 September. As a number of Sonic members had enrolled this race and there was no other available date to hold the time trial during the busy season, it was cancelled.

The Airwave Triathlon inspired excitement for local triathletes as their first taste of a long-distance triathlon in Hong Kong. It featured a 1.8k swim, 60k bike and 15k run in Plover Cove. It attracted good number of Ironman triathletes who, like the other competitors, had to draw on mental toughness to complete the course in difficult conditions. Poor course layout, insufficient water on the run course plus the heat and humidity turned the race into a game of survival. Those who finished, predict they swam 2.2k, biked 60k and ran 19k.

The now well-known open-water swim event Clean Half 15k swim was the week after the Airwave Triathlon. Another endurance event and our party girl Janice Lee teamed up with friends to paddle and swim from Stanley to Repulse Bay! See her story:

Hong Kong ITU Triathlon on 14 October was the annual gathering of the triathlon community and it is fantastic to see a growing number of participants and teams in Hong Kong! See this race recap.

Aquawiz
Aquawiz is a new local organizer of open-water swims and aquathon races with a pontoon setup in the sea – the 2k swim course involves climbing onto the pontoon and diving back in again. See this video if you're on Facebook (Charles Hui suggests they also invite a live band and photographer on the pontoon!)
The Aquawiz races are friendly and low-key and last until December, see http://www.aquawiz2000.com/

Taiwan 70.3 finishers

Ironman 70.3 Taiwan
The third Ironman 70.3 Taiwan was successfully held in Kenting on 4th November. This year the course was adjusted to avoid a hill climb in the heat, so one segment of the hill climb was removed and T1 and T2 was moved to a shadier location. Although these changes were welcome, one problem was that the organisers forgot to equip the aid stations with sports drinks and Coca-Cola.

Gigi: where is my coke...?

Some say the Ironman Taiwan is the Kona equivalent for Sonic members and Hong Kong triathletes. Congratulation for all finishers especially those who have improved from last year and achieved a good result
5:04:47 Christopher Tong
5:26:48 Delgado‐Moreira Juan
5:41:53 Lee Ying Ho
5:51:37 Chan Wai Kee Eric
5:53:34 Relay No More 3 (9th)
5:55:12 Niiro Mari
5:55:12 Wong Kent
5:55:58 Lee Kin Lun Brian
6:04:50 Lau Gabriel
6:11:48 George Lee

Gigi 9th in AG

6:13:08 Wang Julius
6:13:12 Wong Gigi Gi Wai (9th)
6:16:22 Koo Dreyfus
6:17:15 Mak Teresa

Where is Coach Alan Tam?
Do you miss the hardcore coach Alan’s sports beeper during 20 sets of fartlek runs or 20 sets of 50m swim sprints? Or perhaps you are feeling relief?
Where is he now?!
Coach Alan injured his knee during training and is scheduled for knee surgery in late November. He will take a few months off for rehabilitation so let’s wish him a quick recovery and that he can come back even stronger.

Sunday Shek O Training suspended
Since we are stepping into the off-season, Shek O BRICK training will be suspended until April 2013. We look forward to re-forming our coaching resources for the season of 2013.

Sonic End of Season Time Trial 40k Cycling
We follow our tradition to end the season by 40k individual time trial at Tung Chung, the game set on 24 November, weather was wet and cold, not so motivating, our machine Sacha Cheong won the title, Simon Jones, Charles Hui and Eugene Wong after.

Sonic 9th End of Season Party
As everyone knows our coach Kenneth is expecting his first baby (not his belly) in early December, so our End of Season Party will be scheduled in 6th January 2013! Stay tuned!

New payment scheme for the Sonic Training in 2013
We have reviewed the current payment scheme and heard some feedback from the members. By the help of Anson we are able to maintain an accurate attendance and payment record and we are also able to develop the system.
To encourage our members to keep training with Sonic and to cater for busy travelling and shift schedules, we will enhance our payment scheme to make it more flexible while not raising the training fee for our long-term supportive members (same fees since 2008).

See below:
ALL sessions 6 calendar month: $3500 1st January to 30th June or 1st July to 31st December
ALL sessions: $1300 per two calendar month
ALL sessions: $750 per calendar month
**Swim Only: $500 per calendar month
**Run Only: $500 per calendar month
*10 Days: $1000 valid for two months from the time of your first session
*1 Days: $200
*One Day cover 2 to 3 hours continues session on the same day.
**Swim Only session apply for 1 hour or 2 hours swim training subject to club arrangement
**Run Only session apply for 1 hour or 2 hours run training subject to club arrangement
All Sonic sessions cover coaching, entry fee and dedicated swim lane.
All payment are non-refundable.

How’s Yvan?
The bone marrow campaign is huge success and a match bone marrow donor was identified and located in Germany. After a lot of detailed compatibility tests, Yvan received the bone marrow transplant in October, he has gone though six weeks of isolation and now he can go home although he is taking almost 100 pills for anti-rejection therapy. His body is coping well and his mind is strong - he hopes to resume his Sonic membership in 2014. I believe his triathlete spirit makes him a role model for other cancer-fighters.
On 17 October, quote from http://bonemarrowhk.blogspot.hk/
"Dear All,
After yet another little planning twist, the bone marrow has arrived in HK a bit earlier than expected and the transplant is now scheduled for this evening. I am not sure whether this is going to be the end, the beginning of the end of another stage in a longer recovery but I do know however that this is where I want to be. I am happy to proceed and confident in the outcome.

Yvan: Looking Forward!

During this process, I will have a deep thought for all of you who have supported me during these long months. I feel privileged and immensely grateful.
I look forward to see you all very soon.
Love,
Y"



Thank you for reading, enjoy the off-season and have good health.

2012 Sanshui ITU Triathlon

We are back from SanShui ITU Triathlon, bring back the trophies, price money, PB and great result, Congratulating Michal crowned AG champion, Janice AG 3rd, Gigi AG 5th, big thanks to TriHK close coordination and great hospitality of SanShui volunteers!

It was a beautiful weather on race morning, sunny, 15C air temperature and 21C in the water, around 60% humidity, and blue sky, perfect racing condition! Very big difference from the previous rainy and cold race day for elite. Pre-race announcement confirm it’s NOT allow for wetsuit that help for those on/off decision to put on the wetsuit.

· Stay optimistic for all weather conditions, we prepared for the cold day but who know it turned sunny?

GuangDong style is going global!

Course Map

The race setup is exactly aligning with high ITU standard, blue carpet, big LED screen live coverage, 5 buoys swim course with floating pontoon to dive-in, very wide bike course you only need to slow down on 1 turning point, well defined marking you just feel like racing in any of the World Champion series. This race is the event of the whole SanShui City, they mobilized large number of volunteers from the schools and university to station in race registration, greeting and sending off triathletes, cheerleading at every 10m on bike/run course, handing out full bottle of waters, you got the same level of experience compare to fully commercialized Ironman races, given that only RMB80 for registration, you eventually forgave some of the chaos during registration.

Last minutes withdrawal
From the start list we are one of the big continental team of 17 athletes however we only have 9 standing on the start line because of difference reasons I received. We are lucky for no penalty charge for hotel and race entry just for this time.
We will go again next year, and we will need strong commitment from everyone to protect our reputation as age-grouper team of Sonic from Hong Kong China.

Photos from local forum:
http://www.fsbike.net/viewthread.php?tid=22396&extra=page%3D1
http://www.fsbike.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=73&page=1

Here what they said:
By Julius
Couple of vignettes to share about racing in China. It’s a new sport there. As with all other aspects, racing in China will take on China characteristics. Sometimes in very humorous ways.

1) No wet suits since only foreigners and Hong Kongers have them. No one in China has one (though most are probably “made in China”
2) While Philip and I were getting ready in transition area, guy next to me had a swim top on. On it he had pinned his race number on front and back of the shirt. Obviously not aware that you don’t need a number for the swim and that the pins could potentially jab someone’s finger during the wave starts. So Philip kindly gave him a race belt and showed him how to use it.
3) Another guy saw me putting on sunscreen so he comes excitedly over to ask for some. After I squeezed some into the palm of his hand, he proudly announced that this is the first time he has used this stuff. You have to realize this guy is in his 50’s and his sun-baked face with creases showed it.
4) On my bike, there was a guy who passed me on every incline for 2 loops. During the straight-aways and down slopes, I passed him with ease in my TT position. When you first see this guy, he is on an ordinary bike. Ok it does not have a basket, but it has clips and he is wearing sneakers. But on the uphills, he is standing and really putting his back into it. I could hear him huffing and puffing behind me until he passed me.
5) During the start, we were lined up according to our race number. Yes, we stood in order of our number. You can’t even imagine doing this in HK, or for that matter, anywhere else in the world! Guy next me was asking all kinds of questions while we were watching the swim starts. Turns out the only other race he has done—ever—was the Shanshui race last year.

Anyway, we are in the early stages of Tri’s in China. Since it is an Olympic sport, it will undoubtedly grow large over time. With 1.3 billion people, expect some tough competitors to emerge in the future.

By Janice
Supplementing Julius' point 5 below, there were 11 people in Gigi and my age group, and the guy ordered and reordered us 4 times to line up in accordance with our race numbers (no. 631 to, er, 641) even though we had not moved since the first time we were told to stand in place and looked equally perplexed each time when Gi and I told him that no. 641 (a la Louise Wheeler) is not coming. I think he might have thought that he would have to write a report to each superior level on why he did not have a complete set of athletes.

Another anecdote is that when I emerged from the the water, taking off my swim cap to enter into T1, there were lots of "It's a girl!" exclamations from the crowd as if I had just emerged from my mother's womb.

I don't think I have seen so many "voluteers" along the course in a race, each cheered as enthusiastically as they were my own friends. I had put "volunteers" in quotation marks as Gi would probably respond otherwise with her (somewhat ironically true) theory that everything over the weekend (including the blue sky on race day) had been paid, one way or another, by the government.

This girl is one of the helpful volunteers for our group registration.

Janice feels like celebrity

2012 Sonic End of Season Time Trial - 40k Cycling

Sonic End Of Season Time Trial 24 Nov, SATURDAYIt's for someone climbing the top 3 title of Sonic Time Trial series!

It's for someone testing their brand new time trial bike, aero wheels, helmet, ceramic bearings...

It's for someone testing their bike time without tolerances the ocean swim and saving for run...
It's for someone last bike training for Phuket Tri!

This is the real butt-chasing Individual Time Trial for all members of Sonic!

 

DON'T FORGET THIS END OF SEASON TIME TRIAL!!!
This is the final stage of Sonic Time Trial series of 2012!!

 

*Helmet Manatory

*1 Foot down start from the Cheung Tung Rd <> Sunny Bay Rd T-junction

*Start List based on the HK ITU bike time, slowest go first, fastest go last at 1min interval.

*Uphill finish

*Roads are open to traffic

*Extra caution when doing a U-Turn at Cheung Tung Road. Do a long shoulder check for traffic coming from behind.

*no need to sign up, just show up, register Sonic members will be ranked.

This time trial is the last training race for Sonic point.

 
Individual Time Trial
Date: 24 November, Saturday
Arrival Time: 07:30 for warm up
Start Time: 0800

Starting Point: Cheung Tung Road, Sunny Bay Road T-junction

Suggested Car Parking:

You can park at Sunny Bay as long as you have warm up and get to the starting point before 0800.

Most of us will be arriving at 7:30am at Sunny Bay car park.

Format: Individual Time Trial (NO DRAFTING)
Course Map:
Start from Cheung Tung Rd (Sunny Bay junction) > Cheung Tung Rd (Tung Chung end)
http://sites.sonicsports.org.hk/Home/maps

Adult: 40k (2 x loops on Cheung Tung Road A > B > A > B > A)
Junior: 20k (1 x loop on Cheung Tung Road A > B > A)

 

2012 Hong Kong ITU Triathlon

Sonic enjoyed a gold, silver and bronze medal in the 2012 Hong Kong ITU Triathlon Asian Cup held at Disneyland on 14 October.

Because of an accident, all wave start times were postponed for an hour. Thanks go to St. John’s Ambulance, without its emergency support, the race wouldn’t be able to go ahead.

Jeanette Wang won a fantastic gold in the Olympic distance 30-34 age group in a time of 2.33.43 with teammate Stephanie Bina to get a stunning silver, coming home in 2.43.42. Jeanette was Sonic’s fastest women in the competition.

Jeanette 1st, Stephanie 2nd

Andy Patrick made it a full set for the club when he won bronze in the 50-54 age group Olympic distance in 2.30.33, well ahead of the pack as he sprinted from the water.

Michael Lam in action

Michael Lam took part in Junior Open, leading all the way both in the swim and bike legs, although unfortunately missed his landing in T2. However, his quick run meant he sustained the first runner-up title.

A smaller-than-usual Sonic contingent competed but mention should go to the following: Koo Dreyfus came in 6th in the 20-24 age group in a time of 2.42.14.
Christopher Tong (40-44 age) came home in a good time of 2.28.31, Eric Chan – 2.37.47, 13thin 45-49 age group with YingHo Lee, just behind in 2.40.02. Teammates Sacha Cheong and Derek Kut Yip Ming spurred each other on to be separated by less than .30 in the 40-44 age group – and Sacha missed his wave start by five minutes. The category saw the most competitors for the club with Gary Tam, T Wong , George Lee, YingHo, Terry Ma and Hing Chong all racing.

Other Sonic representation came from Julius Wang (50-54), Samuel Ajmal (45-49), Simon Jones, Shaun Mullen, Hang Chan and Man Wong (35-39), Samuel Chan (30-34).

Kim Lai on her first OD race

For the women, Teresa Mak came home in 2.57.34 sneaking under the three hour barrier to come 11th in the 35-39 age. Also in the category was Adelyn Cheong who finished the race despite not training for three months. Louise Wheeler and Elsie Leung also took part, and Kim Lai finished in eighth position in 3.26.02 in for the 25-29 age group as a first attempt in Olympic distance triathlon.

In the Sprint category, the best performance of the day was by Tsang Hon Min who came a incredible 8th in 1.29.30 in the 50-54 age group. Our photographer Ryan Tan (On) came home in 7thin the 45-49 age group in a time of 1.26.01, with teammate John Fung in 11th six minutes behind. Other male competitors were Oscar Yung who came 10th in the 20-24 age group, Leo Fai (30-34) and Chung Lau (35-39). The only female sprinter was Sally Rubery who raced in the 35-39 age group.

Special mention should go to coach Kenneth whose leading junior Hong Kong squad performed exceptionally well at the competition.
Let’s hope the organizers do a better job of positioning our club tents next year – unfortunately many of Sonic found it difficult to find our tents.

2012 Ironman 70.3 Philippines

August 5: Ironman 70.3 Philippines, Cebu

Beautiful Cebu island was the location for this year’s race as the organizers were keen to make it the Asian version of Kona’s 70.3. A great chance to catch up with Sonic members in the region, it was a good turn-out for the club.

Competitors were nervous leading up to the race with choppy seas and windy conditions but as the big day broke, the weather calmed. The one-loop 1.9k swim leg was like swimming through an aquarium as fish and coral lined the course and boats with drums and live bands helped keep rhythm. The bike course around Cebu island was hot and windy, with a sort of cross-country element as riders sped over bridges and tunnels. The run is where the real battle began as competitors began to suffer from the heat.

Philip Penaloza

Gabriel just on 6 hrs

But Sonic’s Gabriel managed to finish the race in his targeted six hours. Gigi recovered from an attack of shingles only to sadly drop out after the 1.9k swim and 90k bike. Ren Ho finished strong in 5:49:32. Other finishers included Sonic Singapore SuMei Teh and her boyfriend David Sandgren after three months of hard training. Kent Wong, our Tri-HK President Philip Penaloza and Joni Lai also finished.

Su Mei and David

Su Mei and Gigi

Gabriel race report: http://freeyasoul.blogspot.hk/2012/08/ironman-703-philippines-2012.html was also highlighted by official website

Jenson Button

The race featured local celebrities and British top Formula One racer Jenson Button and his super model girlfriend Jessica Michibata who turned themselves into triatheletes for the day.

Jessica Michibata

More photos on Sonic Facebook!

2013 Ironman 70.3 Philippines registration opens on 1st December, 9am.