A run-swim-run event to benefit the Hampton Lifeguard Association’s junior and senior entries in August’s national lifeguard tournament in Hermosa Beach, Calif., is to be held tomorrow at Amagansett’s Atlantic Avenue Beach, and, on Saturday, the first I-Tri youth triathlon in three years is to be contested at Long Beach in Noyac.
There will be two races at Atlantic, beginning with an A race tomorrow at 6 p.m. comprising a half-mile run, a half-mile swim, and a half-mile run, and a B race at 6:30 with quarter-mile distances.
The run-swim-run will be a fund-raiser for the Hampton Lifeguard Association’s trip to the Aug. 10-13 national tourney. Forty junior lifeguards and 35 senior guards are to go. The H.L.A. team, with competitors from Montauk to Westhampton, placed third in the U.S.L.A.’s national tournament last year.
In asking for donations, John Ryan Jr., chief of the East Hampton Town guards, has said that any donation is tax exempt “and will help fund not only this trip but also half a dozen other programs that we run.” These include the 6-through-8-year-old Nipper program, which has an enrollment of 130 this year; the junior lifeguard program for 9-through-15-year-olds, which has 350 participants; the cadet program for 15 and 16-year-old aspiring lifeguards, with 15 teens; the 70-student lifeguard training program, “whose aim is to certify guards ranging in age from 15 to 60 so that they can work at any pool or on the bay or ocean,” and the 65-member East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue squad “that responds year-round to calls for rescues at any unprotected beach at any time, day or night.” Donations will also support the East Hampton Y.M.C.A. Hurricane swim club, whose 90 members practice year-round and compete between October and March.” Donations can be sent via Venmo to @HamptonLifeguardAssoc or by mail to Hampton Lifeguard Association, 36 Talkhouse Walk, East Hampton 11937.”
As for the I-Tri Youth Triathlon, it will be the first time since 2019 that the event for 10 to 17-year-olds has happened. The organization’s aim is to empower middle school girls in the 13 school districts it serves between Mastic and Montauk. In the Covid years of 2020 and 2021, “we had, instead, a 30-minute Olympic Challenge comprising 10-minute workouts to strengthen the girls’ arms and shoulders, their legs, core, and cardiovascular system,” Jenn Fowkes said in an email.
She added that the Challenge was designed by six world-class triathletes, a number of them Olympians — Gwen Jorgenson, Dara Torres, Katie Zaferes, Melissa Stockwell, Sarah Piampiano, and Mary Cain. They recorded videos encouraging the girls, who also got to meet and talk with Torres, Zaferes, Piampiano, and Cain in Zoom sessions.
“The 120 girls we have been working with have had a really rough two years
with the Covid pandemic,” Fowkes continued. The sixth graders last had a full year of school in the third grade. To help them we certified our entire staff and board in ‘trauma informed care and coaching.’ The results have been amazing.”
As of earlier this week, 120 I-Tri girls, as well as 23 others in the 10-to-17 age group, had signed up for Saturday’s triathlon, which is to begin at 7:30 a.m. with a 300-yard bay swim followed by a six-mile bike, and a one-and-a-half-mile run.
“It’s the only open water youth triathlon on Long Island,” Fowkes said, adding that registration was still open, through elitefeats.com.
The 2019 winner was Macy Putka, then 11, of Brooklyn. Amanda Koszalka, then a 12-year-old Southampton Intermediate School student, was the top I-Tri finisher.
Theresa Roden, I-Tri’s founder, has said that triathloning can be transformative, and that the main thing is finishing.
“It’s I-Tri’s 13th season and we’re continuing to grow,” said Fowkes. “The girls meet twice a week after school for hourlong empowerment and fitness sessions. They’ve been training for the triathlon with our athletic director, Sharon McCobb, since March. Since school ended, they’ve been training three times a week, swimming, biking, and running at Long Beach with Sharon and the other coaches.”