One day after the Lough Gill Swim and Letterkenny Sprint, Sligo Tri members were once more on the podium as another gang headed down to Loughrea for the annual sprint event, thanks go to Tommy Sheridan for this report (race photos are on the club photo page, courtesy of Tommy):
"Myself ,David Gunning and Jason Mc Morrow arrived in Portruny on the shores of Lough Ree at 9.30 am Sunday morn.
After driving the cycle course we parked up the triathlon team van and headed for registration which was fast and efficent, collected our goodie bag and t-shirt, got our gear together headed to bike park and set up for the race.
Conditions were near perfect, the swim was in a very sheltered bay on a triangle shaped course with a start in the water (which in my opion is the way all triathlons should be started, and not running in from 100 meters like headless chickens -like alot of races!).
There was no hanging around at the start and once the kayaks had us in line we heard the quickest 5,4,3,2,1 and it was game on.
Gary Higgins had a very fast swim, coming out in the top 15; followed closely by Jason, Rory Rafferty, myself and David.
Following a quick change it was over and off on an undulating 20 km bike course; Gary powered his way on the bike section to finish in 2nd place going into run, while Jason had another stormer of a cycle to move into the top 15.
I came in about a minute later, followed by David another minute and a half back. Up front there was a real battle going on with Gary taking the lead and Martin Grealish hot on his heels. In the last km Grealish just managed to pull away from Gary, who finished a close second.
It was great having a club member on the podium; meanwhile Jason was having a great run, picking up a few scalps along the way to finishing 10th overall in a time of 1hr 9 mins. I had my fastest sprint since Rush triathlon, Co. Dublin 1992!, finishing in 1 hr 12 mins 20 secs with the ever improving David Gunning just 3 sec's behind me, knocking another 3 mins of his PB -well done mate
Rory Rafferty had another solid performance in only his 3rd triathlon, all said and done I have to say I would recommend this event to all club members for next year -very safe swim, fast cycle route and flat 5km run (just one drag on it after 1km). We got a very genourous goodie bag, t-shirt, it was very well marshalled ,great food for all; and presentation done while we ate.
For an event that started at 12 noon we were on our way home at 2.30 -the way it should be (way ahead of an event I raced at Slane castle last year and mullaghmore this year). It was run by Athlone tri club, great group of people. As was said before we should support events run by clubs and not events management who are only in it for profit -you cant beat a triathlon run by triathletes for triathletes.
Roll on lough key in 2 weeks see ye all there, Tommy."
Full race results can be found here.
