Triathlon New Zealand has secured something of a coup with the appointment of well respected coach and former elite athlete Brendon Downey to the position of Sport Development Director.
37 year old Downey will return from Australia to take up the newly created role with the national body. Downey has in recent years been working as a performance coach, including coaching Olympian Shane Reed in the lead up to the Olympics.
Tri NZ CEO Dave Beeche is thrilled to have enticed someone of Downeys caliber and reputation to a role seen as vital to the continued development of triathlon in New Zealand.
We have for some time identified this role as key to our continued growth. It is a wide ranging role with the opportunity to influence the sport on many different levels.
Brendon brings all of the attributes required for the role and more. He is a former elite athlete himself and has served a long and varied apprenticeship for such a role, working in sports science and coaching for the best part of 15 years.
His contacts and networking skills add further to his reputation within the triathlon community and will put him in good stead to help our team at Tri NZ advance the sport over the next few years.
Downey is delighted to be returning home and to have secured such an influential role at a time when the sport is experiencing such positive growth.
I am looking forward to leading the Sport Development programme to create pathways that not only allow more people to become involved in our sport but to also encourage and inspire those already involved to remain involved.
Its an exciting opportunity for me to direct development within a youth programme that enable schools, clubs and others to create positive opportunities for youth to participate in triathlon
I look forward to using my knowledge of triathlon coaching to enhance the coaching capability. I am committed to ensuring that Triathlon New Zealand produces more triathlon coaches, and that those who coach are more effective at coaching. New Zealand has some of the best triathlon coaches in the world, we need to ensure that there are clear pathways, resources, mentoring and opportunities so that continues.
Quality, safe, fun events are the backbone of our sport, the technical programme has already developed a number of excellent resources and systems to assist this, I look forward to working with event directors, officials and our very important and valuable volunteers that make this all possible
I am committed to engaging triathlons wider community, our members, our clubs, our volunteers. I see this as being very important to ensure we make the right choices about what we do.
Beeche has no doubt that it is the high profile and growth of the sport in recent years that has played a part in recruiting a candidate such as Downey away from the private sector of the sport.
Often national sporting bodies are watching quality people head in the other direction, away from them and into independent roles in the sport. In this case I am pleased to say that our reputation, success and growth as a sport have lured quality candidates to apply for the role. Clearly it is the opinion of the Board and Tri NZ that Brendon is the ideal candidate from a quality group of applicants.