Visitors flock to Echuca triathlon

“I came all the way from Sydney for this,” said his father Peter.

“It’s been great to have everyone come and to be able to cheer loudly for Andrew. He did so well and we are very proud of him.”

They weren’t the only ones who travelled for the race with Tim Bliss and Paige Ajani travelling from Melbourne to take part.

“We’ve done a heap of races before but this, well, this is the first time we’ve come here for one,” Mr Bliss said.

“We wanted a new race location and this seemed like a great place.”

As well as loving the community, Ms Ajani said she loved being able to race later in the day.

“The atmosphere here is so good and it’s just lots of fun. The crowd support here is probably the best we’ve ever had,” she said.

“Doing this nighttime race or a twilight race was pretty cool as well. Especially in the summer.”

This wasn’t a surprise for ace organiser Sarah Mulkearns who said that this has always been an event that people travelled for.

“We’ve got participants from all over Victoria and NSW. We’ve got Melbourne metro clubs that have come down and take part,” she said.

“So it’s really brought a lot of people into the town, which is what we love to see.

“We had kids competing this morning and then their parents taking part tonight. It’s just been a great thing for families to do together. It really gets everyone down here.”

Ms Mulkearns said she was really really pleased with all the community support they’d seen this year.

“The atmosphere down here this afternoon is just incredible. We not only had record numbers in our events, but just looking around and seeing all the community coming down and supporting, it’s just awesome,” she said.

“For 25 years we’ve been building up this event and we have people who have come every year which is really special.”

Ms Mulkearns said she was thankful for the volunteers who helped put everything together.

Two women came out the night before and helped put out signs.

“We have someone in the race and it felt good to be able to help out,” said volunteer Leah Sherman.

These kinds of little things made the weekend possible, according to Ms Mulkearns.

“We’re all volunteers who put this on and there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to get up and running and then showcasing it on the day,” she said.

“So we’re super proud and super thankful for all our volunteers and sponsors in the community as a whole.”