THE Temora Triathlon has been placed on the scrapheap this year, with organisers lamenting the COVID pandemic as the "nail in the coffin" for the event.
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One of the Riverina Tri Series' traditional and most popular triathlons was a notable omission when the series schedule was locked in last month, with four legs to be held this year.
The Temora Running and Multisports Club has folded for now, but vice president Peter Harper is hopeful they will be able to uncover some new faces to revive the committee.
"The catalyst this year has been COVID. We knew it was going to be difficult to put on the event with restrictions and a lot of planning, that was probably the nail in the coffin for us," he said.
"We're a pretty small committee and we've been trying to recruit new committee members for several years. The passion level for the committee wasn't there and it was just getting harder and harder every year.
"We have a very supportive council, but even just getting the road approvals done is getting tougher. We thought we'd call it a day and try and get some fresh blood involved."
Temora offers a point of difference to the rest of the series, with the swim leg in the town dam the only open water one on the schedule.
However, last year's event was reduced to a duathlon due to low water levels.
"It's disappointing because we've got a wonderful facility with the lake and it was pretty popular," Harper said.
"We'd get athletes coming from the likes of Sydney and Canberra, but hopefully we can fire it up again."
The series will begin at Ganmain on February 7, followed by The Rock (March 7), Holbrook (March 14) and West Wyalong (Saturday, March 27).
Series publicity officer Angus Westaway said Temora's withdrawal was a setback but said $3000 will be available across the series, with $1000 each to the overall male and female winners.
Last year the series ended a race early after COVID forced the cancellation of the West Wyalong event.
"It's a shame Temora has gone because they were a more traditional triathlon, and they were the only one with an open water swim in the lake," he said.
"We hope they return at some point, but once those committees step down it can be hard to get it started again. Hopefully they can recoup and find some new people.
"It will be nice to get it started because there hasn't been a lot of racing going on."
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