Over seventy local multi-sport athletes turned up in Mullagmore for the first race in the interclub Duathlon series jointly hosted by Mullagmore Tri Club and Sligo Tri Club. Due to the promised frost a later than advertised start of 11am gave participants a couple of extra hours sleep. Unusually for this time of year a bright sunny day with a biting easterly breeze greeted the athletes for the season opener. The race consisted of a 2.5 k run out and back run passing some breathtaking views of Mullagmore headland. The run was followed by a 23k cycle from Mullagmore to Bundoran and finished with an identical leg sapping 2.5k out and back run.
The first race of the season always brings out the jitters, as racers are eager to test out their conditioning after a long dark winters training. One thing was clear from the line up was that the Gary’s cycles and chain driven cycle shops are doing very well from the rising popularity of triathlon and multi-sport by the array of new bikes on display.
In the male event Neill Walton (Sligo Tri) was clear favourite on the day with the absence of the big guns Ross mc Lynn (Sligo Tri) and Pat Thouy (MSC tri). The main contenders from Sligo Tri club were Colm Casey, Mark Capilitan, Wayne mc Nulty, Sean Flanery fresh from a top ten finish in Limerick two weeks ago, and newcomer Eamon Mc Andrew who has showed outstanding promise over the last couple of months in training. John Mc Sharry and Oliver White from MSC tri carried their best hopes of a podium place. In the women’s event Cecilia Mc Guinness (Sligo Tri) and Caoimhe Ni Mhurchu (Sligo tri) were clear favourites to take the women’s event, after a long hard winters training .
Walton set a impressive pace from the gun posting 8.30s for the first 2.5k with Flannery, John Mc Sharry, Fergus Scott and newcomer Mc Andrew. After a quick transition Walton had a sizeable lead starting the bike section. Colm Casey (Sligo Tri) starting the bike section in fifth place quickly reeled in the chasers and set of in pursuit of Walton. At the turnaround it looked like Casey would reel in the leader but Walton managed to hold on to the finish of the bike section maintaining small gap of about 15 seconds. Next of the bike was Mc Andrew a further three minutes behind closely followed by Sean Flanery, John Mc Sharry, Mark Capilitan, Stephen Carty and Mc Nulty. Walton was not going to be caught and pushed hard on the run to extend his lead completing the course in a time of 0:59:23, Casey chased hard but could not close the gap and finished in a time of (1:00:48), with newcomer Eamon Mc Andrew (1:03:12) completing a clean sweep of the podium for Sligo Tri. This was a phenomenal performance for a first timer and definitely one to watch closely for the future. Next few athletes across the line included Sean Flanery (1:04:00), John Mc Sharry (1:04:10) the first MSC tri man home, closely followed by clubman Oliver White (1:05:10) in sixth place. The remainder of the top ten included Sligo tri members Mark Capiltan (1:05:30), Wayne Mc Nulty (1:06:52), Stephen Carty (1:07:24) and Fergus Scott (1:07:27)
In the women’s event as predicted Caoimhe Ni Mhurchu lead the first run form Cecilia Mc Guinness. Mc Guinness (1:11:33) showed her prowess on the bike and opened up a strong lead entering transition, which she held onto over the 2nd run leg. The fast advancing Ni Mhurchu (1:13:02) was in 2nd position with Una Mannion (1:15:03) posting an impressive third position in her first event. The top 3 were closely followed by Enna mc Hale, Saoirse O Donohue and Jackuline O Connor.
The next event in the series will take place in Rosses Point. The meeting point will be the car park The event will consist of a 2.5k run – 20k cycle -2.5k run.
