From Triathlon Ireland First out of the water was young and upcoming,Owen Cummins, in a blistering 20.02. Following him at 20.36 was the legendary Brian Campbell and at 20.37 James Davenport from Pulse, followed then by Oisin McGrath, Darren Cranston, Mark Dunne, and Brian Jenkins at 21.34. Brian worked hard on the bike in a strong wind to pick the early exiters off, catching Campbell coming up to the half way point. But as they raced together and the pressure mounted mechanical failure hit Campbell who was forced to retire shortly afterwards with cable problems.
Meanwhile James Davenport, buoyed up his strong swim was out alone in front. Jenkins caught him around the 4k mark and from then the race was his.
Fittingly this year’s winner is a friend of the late Ironman, Joey Hannan’s family so there is an extra special resonance for them this year about the event.
James Davenport held his place and came in second in a time of 2.06.58 followed by Waterford’s Shane Scadding at 2.08.56.
Of note also was the extraordinary bike of Alan Buckley in 1.01.52, the nearest bikes to him being 1.06.31 and 1.06.43, Davenport and Jenkins.
Another remarkable swim time was posted in the Ladies by Limerick Tri’s Deirdre Kearney, 22.54. In the chasing pack was UL’s Lynn Algar with another super time of 23.30. Elena Maslova was a full five minutes behind her at 28.43 ( though there was a lap query) but you can never hold Elena back long and she quickly showed the girls who is boss and finished the bike in 1.14 and the run in a fantastic 40.04. Lynn Algar held her position right through in what is only her second Olympic race to take second place to Pulse’s Aoife Lynch’s Third.
The Try-aTry or Novice event was won by last year’s winner, Shane Scully of Nenagh, followed closely by rising Irish Junior star Mike Yelverton who did the 500m swim in a fabulous 7 minutes.Third in the Men’s was another Pulse club member Paul Reape. The Ladies Try was won by Galway girl Tara Whyte who was second in the Limerick Duathlon Series. Second to her today was well known Limerick runner Tracey Roche and third was Ailbhe Carroll club mate to Shane Scully in Nenagh.
Sincere thanks to the Gardai and to UL for their generous support and to all of you who travelled to take part and make Joey another huge success.
