Irish triathletes were to the fore at the Dubai International Triathlon over the weekend with Deirdre Casey finish as the first female and Kevin Thornton third for the men. More than 1,100 professional and amateur athletes took the plunge into the crystal clear waters off Atlantis, The Palm, to compete in the first part of the half ironman distance race. It featured a 1.9km swim, a 90km bike ride to Dubai Sports City and back and a 20k run along the crescent of Palm Jumeirah.
Dubai based Deirdre Casey, finished in 04:34:47, some 7 minutes ahead of Merle Talviste of Estonia in second.
In the men’s race Kevin Thornton had a super swim to exit in 3rd place alongside two-time Ironman World Champion, Chris McCormack. Thornton held his place during the bike and ran well to seal a podium finish after a tough battle on the run. David Plese took victory, dipping under 4 hours to finish in a time of 3:58:18 with Thornton covering the distance in 4:04:08.
"The weather played its part with it being hot and windy, 32 degrees and 40% humidity. It was quite tactical but the race went well and I’m happy with my performance."
