COVID-19

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17 March, 2020

A heartfelt message from our CEO, Mark ‘Emo’ Emerton

Dear Elite Energy Family,

Well, never in my life, would I have said I would need to be writing to you all about the current state of our sport, our business, our passion, my love for the sport of triathlon and where we are today, tomorrow and over the next few months of uncertainty.

This crazy thing they call COVID-19 has certainly rocked so many on so many levels.

With policies, decisions and ideas changing daily (and sometimes hourly), our team will do our best to keep our triathlon and running family informed and in front of any changes that may affect us all.

There will no doubt be some extremely tough decisions we as a company need to make over the coming weeks/months that will affect our staff and their families, many of our contractors and more importantly our athletes. Elite Energy is based in Nowra and over the past 4 months have been hit hard with fires, floods and now this damn virus. As a team we have no choice but to reduce hours and as you would understand will affect many of our Elite Energy families. We do ask for your understanding, patience and a little empathy during this period of difficult decisions and think about the long term effect this is having on so many – and the sports we all love.

Elite Energy has 4 triathlon events scheduled for the rest of this season and (as of today) we will decide 4 weeks from each event if we are able to proceed. We have already made the difficult decision to postpone Batemans Bay on 28 March. We know this is not the most favourable option, but as things are changing rapidly and we hope within a month (maybe for the better) these decisions will change.

We also ask you to understand that some of these decisions may be out of our control, with approvals from Police, Local and State Governments, Triathlon Australia, etc.

It is impossible to predict when this monster called COVID-19 will normalise, so as race directors we need to try and continue in our day to day operations, while at the same time prepare for what may happen. When we do have to make the tough decision to postpone an event, we have noticed on social media and via some emails that postponing is the “cheap way out”. Of course this isn’t the way. Can I say that nearly 90% of event costs are incurred 1 to 3 months out from race day, with most of the products ordered and services having been contracted. Postponing an event is not an easy decision and we would hope we are all in this together in finding the best possible solution, while at the same time accepting the fact that everyone has to forgo a little of their personal ideal situation.

As many of you may know, Elite Energy has always been one of the innovators in our sport and always willing to step outside the ‘norm’ to offer our athletes a more enjoyable experience. With this in mind, if we are able to proceed with any of our remaining events this season, below are some ideas we are considering to align with the policies being imposed by our authorities:

• • Keeping events (including spectators) under 450 (if it stays this way). We can run 2 or 3 events per day. 450 race at 7 am, another 450 at 10 am, etc and request athletes from the first race leave the area immediately after they finish;

• • During online registration (or once entries close) request how many spectators each athlete will bring;

• • Race bibs, stickers and timing chips (so no registration lines) will be mailed out

• • Rolling entry through transition – eg competitor numbers 1 to 50 7.00 am / 51 to 99 approx. 7.15 am and so on;

• • Request estimated athlete finishing times so we can start each athlete in order with an approx. 1-minute gap (rolling start);

• • Athletes to place their own timing chip into a bin at the finish line;

• • Sealed bottled water at the finish line, therefore no recovery or congregation;

• • Online awards and medals to be mailed out (no on-site presentation);

• • Hand sanitiser at every toilet;

• • On-site contracted toilet cleaners;

• • Hand wash facilities at all events;

• • Personal porta-loos (at the athlete’s expense);

Please keep in mind these are just initial suggestions that may (or may not) be options during these difficult times – and all are an extra expense for the organisers.

If (or when) we get to a level of where we need to postpone events, Elite Energy will adopt the following options for athletes already registered:

• • Leave your entry to be automatically transferred to the new date (once this is decided). We will work with Council/Tourism and Triathlon Australia on new dates and also our contractors. Keep in mind that most other events being cancelled will want theirs in the (already crowded) later half of 2020;

• • If you have taken the Race Day Cancellation Insurance (RDCI), you can get a full refund;

• • If you have not taken the RDCI, during these unfortunate times we will relax our policy with the following:
    • Transfer to an event of equal or lesser value until the end of next season (June 2021) with NO TRANSFER CHARGE, or
    • Refer to EE’s Refund and Transfer Policy, and the event waiver agreement in your athlete registration account (Register Now) for more information.

Please keep in mind that considerable work has been done to enable these events to proceed with office staff, marketing, operational costs, online fees, etc. Again we appreciate your understanding and ask for your empathy during these difficult times.

Warmest regards,

Emo.
CEO Elite Energy Events

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In the interest of public health and safety, and in accordance with State and Federal Government measures to control the spread of COVID-19, Elite Energy have made the difficult decision to postpone the Batemans Bay Triathlon Festival scheduled to be held on 28 March 2020, to a date later in the year (date to be confirmed).

We understand and empathize that many of you will be disappointed with this news, as are we and especially so close to the event.