Start Your Impossible

2019/20 Entries Now Open! Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids Tryathlon

WHAT’S YOUR GOAL OR DREAM? THAT WAS TOYOTA’S QUESTION TO MORE THAN 30,000 KIDS IN THE LEAD-UP TO AND DURING THE 2018-2019 SANITARIUM WEET-BIX KIDS TRYATHLON SERIES, WHERE TOYOTA LAUNCHED ITS ‘START YOUR IMPOSSIBLE’ CAMPAIGN.

Inspiring kids to think about their goals, Toyota was proud to have Olympic and Paralympic athletes attend the schools promotional tour conducted by Sanitarium, to talk at school assemblies about their journeys and provide inspiration to kids about starting their impossibles.

One of the guest Toyota Paralympians was Nikita Howarth, a former Para cyclist and swimmer who became New Zealand’s youngest ever Paralympian after her selection for the London 2012 Paralympics at age 13. Nikita, born with a bilateral upper limb deficiency, was herself inspired to win a Paralympic Gold medal following a school visit from 2004 Olympic cycling champion Sarah Ulmer.

Nikita spoke at Aberdeen School in Hamilton about participating in the Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon when she was young, how she overcame the obstacle of participating with able-bodied kids, and her later success at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

TAKEN BY SURPRISE!

More than 2,400 Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon participants wrote down their goals or dreams and entered Toyota’s ‘Start your Impossible’ competition to go into the draw to win a surprise visit at their schools from Toyota Ambassador and Olympian Dame Valerie Adams.

You can imagine the surprise on the kids’ faces when Dame Valerie knocked on Room One’s door at Waikaretu School, to surprise 10-year-old Addison Welch who wrote that her Impossible Goal was to “Learn to throw a shotput because we are a small rural school with limited opportunities.”

Waikaretu School, with a roll of just 25 students, was established in 1924 and is located in the north-west reaches of Waikato near the rugged and beautiful west coast of the North Island.

From the school, Dame Valerie and Addison drove in Dame Valerie’s Toyota Prado to have some one-on-one time and to talk about goal-setting.

Conveniently, Addison’s grandparents run the local Nikau Cave and Café, so after sipping their hot chocolates, the pair arrived back at school for shot put coaching – from the most successful shot putter in New Zealand!

You can view this here.

START YOUR IMPOSSIBLE THIS NOVEMBER!

This year the 28th Sanitarium Weet- Bix Kids TRYathlon series starts in Mount Maunganui on 24th November, the first of 18 events that will attract more than 30,000 participants from the Bay of Islands in the north to Dunedin in the south.

Participants and their families are invited to check out the Toyota Tent, where they can have their photos taken on the ‘mini-Olympic podium’. When a parent/guardian uploads the image to their Instagram account using hashtag #startyourimpossiblenz, a Polaroid photo is printed on the spot!

Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon participants can also try their hands at playing an actual Paralympic sport, boccia (pronounced ‘botch-ya’), which is a target game similar to pétanque, where coloured balls need to get as close to a ‘jack’ (the target ball) as possible. Each winner will receive a temporary tattoo and go into the draw to win a ‘Start your Impossible’ prize pack, announced at prize giving. Registrations for the 2019-2020 Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon are now open at www.tryathlon.co.nz.

20 EVENTS NATIONWIDE

Mount Maunganui - 24.11.19

Rotorua - 01.12.19

South AKL - 03.12.19

South AKL - 04.12.19

Central West AKL - 08.12.19

Central East AKL - 09.02.20

Gisborne - 12.02.20

Hamilton - 16.02.20

Hastings - 18.02.20

Christchurch Morning - 23.02.20

Christchurch Afternoon - 23.02.20

Dunedin - 01.03.20

Nelson - 08.03.20

Hutt City -12.03.20

Wellington Morning - 15.03.20

Wellington Afternoon -15.03.20

Palmerston North - 18.03.20

Hibiscus Coast - 22.03.20

New Plymouth - 25.03.20

Bay Of Islands - 29.03.20