Genevieve Gill, Sam Broadeley, Bailey Kelly, Jack Bilton, Declan Kelly, Brandon Connolly, Luke Chalker, Connor Whiteley, Tom Kotzur and Lauren Kerwick will all compete at the 2014 NSW All Schools triathlon today and tomorrow, at Penrith International Regatta Centre.

The decad train and race together as part of former professional triathlete Mel Ashton’s HyPER squad, but will instead represent their various schools over the next two days.

The carnival starts today with the individual races-the 400m swim, 10km ride, 3km run junior event; the 600m swim, 15km ride, 4km run for intermediates and the 750m swim, 20km ride, 5km run for seniors.

The event wraps up tomorrow with the team relay events.

Speaking as the group were sweating it out in one of their final training runs, Ashton said the event was a huge chance for the triathletes.

“They’ve been training really hard,” she explained.

“If they perform the way they have been training, and in the lead-up races they should do very well.”

Ashton said the majority of the group had prepared with several races, including the recent Orange inter-club triathlon and the Elite Energy triathlon.

In an ideal world the students would compete as HyPER triathletes, Ashton joked, before adding how well she expects each school team to do.

“All of this group will represent Kinross, but we have other triathletes from other schools too,” Ashton said .“They’ll find the team events tough. It’s a relay, so one person swims, one person runs and one person rides. 

“Most schools specialise but these guys are all genuine triathletes.”

The top six in each category will be selected to represent their state at national championships. Three of the group - Chalker, Whiteley and Kerwick, are no strangers to wearing sky blue having competed at nationals in 2013.

“There’s a few real prospects, I just hope they all race to their potential,” Ashton said.