Multisport: Academy to bridge gap for promising athletes

A new triathlon academy - the first of its kind - is to be set up in Dunedin to try to bridge the gap between promising triathlete and elite performer.

Triathlon New Zealand has joined forces with the Otago Polytechnic Institute of Sport and Adventure to set up the Otago Triathlon Academy, due to start next year.

It will follow a similar academy system set up by Rowing New Zealand in the city.

The academy will be run by Tri New Zealand high-performance coach Tim Brazier, of Dunedin.

Brazier said the academy would hopefully better school up young athletes with training and preparation in order to make the next leap after leaving school.

"What we want to do is find that elite talent at high school and help them to push on to being elite athletes performing to their very best," Brazier said.

Brazier, who coaches Wanaka triathlete Tony Dodds, said they were finding a lot of young athletes were leaving school without knowing where to turn and often dropped out of the sport or failed to reach their potential.

"There is a massive drop-off from high school on to the elite events. We're trying to plug in a programme in between those two levels to keep people interested."

It was the first triathlon academy of its kind in the country, and could be worked on part time in combination with other study.

The first intake, which would start next year, would be limited to 12-14 athletes, and Brazier said the hope was to attract some top talent from around the country.

Already top triathletes from the North Island had signalled they were keen to come south to do the new course.

At the end of the two-year programme, should they pass, students would have the qualification of a certificate in high performance (triathlon).

Brazier said the course did not aim to take over all other coaching and was just a way to help athletes who were away from home for the first time, and get them on to dedicated programmes.

He said Dunedin had good facilities to cater for the course.

Though it was hard to quantify how much money would be put into the programme, which qualified for government funding, the course involved 100 coaching hours and 100 hours of time spent on strength and conditioning.