HUUB Party Will Cheer on Team GB In Olympic Triathlon Race

HUUB Design will be celebrating its Olympic links at a special event in the city this Thursday, August 18.

The Derby company will combine the official opening of its new showroom at the Park Bikeworks in the Cathedral Quarter with a screening of the Olympic triathlon event live from Rio on cinema screens at the nearby QUAD. Nearly 200 staff, customers and fellow Marketing Derby bondholders are expected to attend the event.

The day will start with a lunchtime opening of the showroom.  Guests of honour will include representatives from the City of Derby swimming club whose star swimmer Adam Peaty clinched a gold and silver in Rio. The club put out a plea for sponsorship in the local media and HUUB will announce a £15,000 sponsorship deal to support their work to train young elite swimmers to hopefully emulate Peaty’s success.

Also attending will be Bailey Matthews (9), the Doncaster schoolboy who has Cerebral Palsy.  Baileys courage and determination to finish a triathlon unaided went viral on social media across the world and last year he won a Pride of Britain and BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. He teamed up with HUUB in July to hold the first ‘Be More Bailey’ family triathlon as part of the Jenson Button Trust Triathlon at Markeaton Park.

Guests will then move to QUAD to watch the Olympic men’s triathlon event starting at 3pm. Team GB triathlon stars Jonathan and Alistair Brownlee, who are part of the HUUB family of triathletes, will be hoping to emulate their London 2012 medal success in the London 2012 Olympics and the audience will be cheering them through their endeavours.

Derby-born elite triathlete twins David and Tom Bishop (25) – David won the world’s biggest triathlon in London recently - and Harry Wiltshire (33) who has trained with the Brownlees will be providing live commentary for the audience helped by 12-year-old twins Rowan and Mackenzie Welsh from Barrow-on-Trent. The twins are keen junior triathletes whose idols are the Brownlee brothers. They have met the athletes on several occasions, including producing a ‘Little Alistair and Jonny’ promotional video for HUUB which will be shown at the event.

To add to the atmosphere, everyone will be wearing Brownlee face masks and special T-shirts designed by HUUB with donations going to the Be More Bailey foundation which aims to support young athletes with disabilities.

Award-winning HUUB Design, who are specialist triathlon wetsuit and accessories designers, are supporting a number of Olympic triathletes and para-triathletes in Rio. Eight of the elite athletes taking part in the Olympics will either be wearing HUUB Design’s ultra lightweight swim suits or bespoke wetsuits – depending on the temperature on the day of the triathlon events. As well as the Brownlee brothers, HUUB is supporting female triathlete Helen Jenkins, Team GB para-triathletes Laura Steadman and Phil Hogg as well as a number of international athletes including Slovak Richard Varga who is expected to be first out of the water at Thursday’s race.

HUUB Design founder and owner Dean Jackson said: “Some of the finest triathletes and para-triathletes in the world will be wearing our wetsuits and swim suits so the Olympics is a massive event for our young company. “We had obviously planned to down tools as a team on Thursday afternoon to watch the men’s triathlon event live. “As the Olympics approached, we decided to open this out to the local business community to share our passion for the sport and enable them to enjoy and learn more about the technical aspects of triathlon live on the QUAD big screen with special commentary from Tom and Harry. “We are obviously hoping for Alistair and Jonny to emulate their London 2012 success and, hopefully spurred on by some good positive thinking from the crowd here in Derby, we hope that they will both be back on the podium in Rio. “Combining the event with the official opening of our new city centre showroom, the announcement of our support for City of Derby Swimming Club and celebrating the aspirations of young triathletes who are set for future stardom makes this a very special day for HUUB Design.”

The HUUB Design showroom includes the award-winning range of wetsuits and apparel scientifically designed by the company, Boardman Bikes, the British bicycle manufacturer founded by the professional cyclist Chris Boardman, who have chosen Derby for its third UK showroom and top French sunglasses and helmet manufacturer Ekoi’s who will have their first UK showroom here. Under HUUB Design’s leasehold agreement with Derby City Council, bike parking at the premises in Full Street continues to be available for the public under the management of a new company Park Bikeworks Ltd.  

Dean Jackson concluded: “As a growing company, Park Bikeworks fits with our aims of promoting fitness and participation in sport - particularly the triathlon disciplines of swim, bike and run. “This is certainly a beautiful building in the heart of the city centre.  Having outgrown our current premises in Sinfin, it gives us the space to further expand our operations in Derby in the future.”

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