Sligo Triathlon Club had a very successful weekend at various events. The length of this post gives an idea of how many racers the club was able to field in the various events (including international!) over the two days. It looks good for the future of our club to see so many new members successfully complete the race distances.The weekend kicked off with Mary Hurley completing her first triathlon in Westport (report to follow).
The same day saw a group of four travel to Slane, thanks to Wayne for the following race report…
“Saturday the 29th of May saw five Sligo Triathlon Club members make the journey to Slane Castle, a location more famous for live bands than it is for triathlon.
The AliveOutside run race was the standard sprint distance triathlon of 750m, swim 20k cycle and 5k run.
The swim was in a wave format with 20 minute intervals between each wave. This meant that the faster swimmers going in the fifth and sixth waves had to wait for over an hour and a half before they begun their race. However once they got their chance all members swam well down the Boyne river course exiting the water on the heels of the leaders. A quick scramble up the river bank was followed by a steep 500m run up a hill to the front of the castle grounds to transition.
The bike section was a two lap course on open roads with challenging hilly drags, plenty of dangerous corners and one steep decent which wasnt for the faint hearted. After the second lap riders were directed back into the beautiful grounds of Slane castle. After the dismount there was another 500 meter bare foot run back to transition where the competitors swapped their bikes for their runners and set off on the 5k forest trail run. Competitors were happy with this section of the race and didn’t seem to mind the initial climb up the famous Slane hill. The race finished again by transition adjacent to the castle and was won by Colin Bolger from Pulse Triathlon Club followed by his two teammates in what is proving to be a very strong and experienced Club. The Sligo contingent had mixed fortunes and were led home by Sean Flannery(1.18) with a strong run section to bring him home ahead of Mark Capilitan(1.19), Jason McMorrow(1.24) and Tommy Sheridan(1.29). Wayne McNulty DNF. This gave Sean third in his age category in what was a very competitive event.” –full results are available here.
Congrats to Stewart Mc Kenna who completed his first Half Ironman Event in Vienna at the weekend. Stewart did a fantastic time of 4 hours 49 mins.
On the Sunday the inaugural Lough Allen/Iron Mountain Triathlon took place in Drumshanbo, with the field containing a large number of competitors sporting the new all black club strip. This was a very well organised event and everyone who took part clearly enjoyed it. Club members in both events were placed on the winning podium.There were 2 distances with Mark Capilitan (see photo) winning the Sprint in a time of 1:01:16 -and completing his second race of the weekend!, closely followed by Ronan Mcnamara at 1:02:46. Conal Sexton and Roy Kelly both completed their first triathlon in times of 1:08:39 and 1:09:01 (11th and 13th overall). The ladies veteran prize was taken by Una Mannion in a time of 1:16:43, with Kathy Mc Morrow rounding up a very successful event for the club in a time of 1:24:27.In the longer Olympic distance race the club managed to gain the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th placings in the Mens event (Brian Sexton 2:00:07, Colm Casey 2:00:20, Niall Melvin 2:01:29 and Eamonn Mc Andrew 2:03:59 respectively), with Eamonn competing in his first ever triathlon!
The club was also well represented in the ladies section with Cecilia Mc Guiness taking third in a time of 2:18:05, closely followed in fourth by Caoimhe Ni Mhurchu (2:19:20). Leo Donlon, David Downes and Joe Waters rounded up the Sligo contingents placings (17th at 2:14:11, 29th at 2:22:00 and 34th at 2:29:32 respectively). A full race report can be found by following this link.
The club was also represented in the Liam Ball triathlon in Derry by Czarke Kelly and Alan Waters completing the event in 1:21:59 and 1:32:04 respectively. More details can be found on the northwest tri club website –note: it’s not working at the time of this post (Mon morning).
Congrats to Padraig Hanly who came second in the Lough Sheelin lake swim on Sunday in Cavan. Padraig took part in the 1km event.
Well done to all who took part in the various races -the club website will shortly include a list of club members race reports from the various events; so as we can recommend races for members interested in travelling.
–the next race action is tomorrow with the bike time trial on Moragh Hill –if you plan to race; meet at Calry Church for 6:15pm and we will cycle to it from there.
