South Coast sees influx of more than 6000 people for the 18th Husky Triathlon Festival

Originally beginning as a one-day event, the Big Husky has now grown to a four day festival, with the main events running over the latter three days.

The festival saw a mix of triathletes, runners, swimmers, family, friends, and spectators descend upon Huskisson and its surrounding townships for the event.

Event organiser Elite Energy's Hew Collins spoke of the event and the important boost it provides to the local community.

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"This level of tourism significantly increases end-of-season business in the region - including accommodation, restaurants, cafes, pubs and supermarkets," he said.

"Through this event we are always looking for new ways to improve the appeal of the festival, especially to families, children and most importantly the local community."

The festival kicked off on Friday night (February 24) with the newest addition to the festival - the Husky Night Run.

The event welcomed over 200 keen runners of all ages donning glow wands to raise money for Noah's Inclusions Services with a total of $1500 being raised for the group.

Debra Jefferies and Sam Stubbs from Noah's attended the evening and gave insight into the work Noah's does and benefits for children throughout the Shoalhaven.

Mr Stubbs also got involved in the Super Sprint on Saturday finishing with a time of 0:40:01.

The new Fun Run was lit up by light displays at event central, along the course and at the finish line.

DJ Nemesis also provided entertainment for the runners to cap off the night's entertainment.

Saturday's (February 25) events saw 3,200 people competing across the day, which was the largest turnout of competitors on a single day of the festival.

On the day were two shorter-distance triathlons, the Super Sprint and Sprint, plus the youth favourite 'TriKidz' triathlons - which encourage kids between the ages of 7-11 to give the sport of triathlon a go.

For the runners in the afternoon, they got to experience the Huskisson to Vincentia shoreline with fun runs over 2km, 5km and 10km.

Super Sunday saw out the Ultimate triathlon, Aquabike (swim/bike) and Classic distance triathlon, which saw the elite athletes make their presence known.

Both Ultimate and Aquabike were the 2023 Australian Age Group Championships and World Qualifying Events for the World Multisport Championships in Townsville 2024.

Thirty local, national and international professional triathletes competed in the elite category of the Ultimate distance.

In the 2021 Husky Ultimate, multiple Ironman 70.3 champion and PTO ranked number 24 pro Ellie Salthouse took out line honours for the women's elite, followed closely by multiple Ironman 70.3 podium-getter and PTO ranked number 75 Penny Slater, and multiple Challenge Triathlon and Ironman 70.3 winner Czech triathlete Radka Kahlefeldt.

Former North Melbourne AFLW player-turned-triathlete Kate Gillespie-Jones took out fifth place in her professional debut.

Taking out the men's elite trophy was PTO ranked number 116 Nicholas Free, following his 2021 win at Ironman 70.3 Sunny Coast.

Kurt McDonald, PTO ranked number 313 came in hot on the heels of Nicholas in second place followed by PTO ranked number 525 Benjamin Hill.

Local competitor, Mitchell Cunningham from Kiama Triathlon Club secured a fourth place finish. The PTO ranked number 141 triathlete recently finished in fourth place as well at Challenge Shepparton.