High fever, flu infections, hospital admission and a bicycle crash were obstacles Triathlon Samoa's team encountered participating in the Napier Triathlon Festival.

Despite this, a new national record was set and a teenager qualified for the World Champs.

Ten athletes travelled to New Zealand with two coaches and had training sessions with the Triathlon NZ Junior Development at the Mitre 10 Sports Park in Hawkes Bay. The opportunity came about through the Oceania Triathlon Confederation Executive Board.

Triathlon Samoa secretary general and Oceania Triathlon Confederation vice president Lani Young said she would love to see more of these partnerships soon.

"When I shared with our Oceania Board that Samoa was sending a team to the Napier Triathlon Festival, the President Pete de Wet who is also the CEO for Triathlon New Zealand, offered to have our athletes join in their Juniors Development Camp that was happening the same week," said Young. 

"It was an amazing opportunity for Samoa’s athletes. The team stayed in their accommodation but were able to attend the NZ camp training sessions free of charge and then do a practice race with them at the end. I would love to see more of these kinds of partnerships happening for all our Pacific Island Federations."

The team's trip was funded by the Government of Samoa through the Ministry of Sports and Recreation’s development funding. TSA funded the cost of all the equipment and preparation. During their stay in Napier, they received additional technical support and hospitality from the Uso Bike Club, led by Talalelei and Meriama Taufale. 

"The Uso Bike Club held workshop sessions during the week for the athletes, teaching cycling skills. On the final day of the Development Camp, the team performed a siva as part of their thank-you presentation to Triathlon NZ," Young said.

Pete in an interview online said that this is exactly what should have been done. They should be assisting the Pacific Island nations with opportunities to participate. 

"I hope that from a skills perspective, they were able to go away with something useful. They did admirably well in the race itself, especially when you consider that some of them don’t have any experience in racing this type of format," he said. 

"I’m pleased with the outcome. I hope this is the start of a strong opportunity for us as Tri NZ to start supporting what can happen in the Pacific when we work together."

In a report by Lani, she shared the struggles Samoa Triathlon team had to go through during the race days.

"The team struggled with athletes affected by a flu virus. Team Captain Pitapola Ioane needed emergency medical attention and was taken by ambulance to a hospital where he was admitted for 24 hours. While he recovered enough to be discharged, doctors did not clear him to compete in the main race," she said. 

Another athlete Edna Euta Levale also could not race due to a high fever. Eight athletes competed in the Napier Triathlon Festival Races held on Sunday 23 February. Seven of them set new personal best times in their events.  One athlete crashed off his bike in the race and could not finish due to his injury. He received medical attention immediately and returned home with stitches to one knee." 

However, despite these hurdles, Tyreece Collins set a new national record for Samoa in the Sprint Triathlon with a time of 1 hour and 4 minutes. 

"He took nearly four minutes off the record that he first set a year ago when he first raced in Napier. The 17-year-old from Afega placed 35th out of 122 triathletes in the Men’s Race. The race was the New Zealand qualifier to select their team for the Age Group World Championship, to be held in Australia in October and Tyreece met their selection criteria for his age group. TSA will now consider options for sending Tyreece to race for Samoa in the Age Group World Champs later this year."