from Triathlon Ireland website Congratulations to all duathlon participants who took part in the first Focus Ireland event at Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2 on Sunday August 3rd 2008. The weather decided to be kind to all for a change, the race started and finished in dry and sunny conditions with a small shower to cool down all participants as they completed the last leg of the run. Please read on for full race report…
Well done to Liam Dunne who took the title of fastest male with a time of 59 minutes and 49 seconds and to Irene Walsh who was the first lady to cross the finish line in 1hour, 12 minutes and 56 seconds. Congratulations to Dave Tilly (2nd mens), Tell Coura (3rd mens), Anna Walsh (2nd ladies) and Anne Delaney (3rd ladies). The prize for fastest team was awarded to Team O’Loughlin. All results are available to download here.
The race had to be changed to a duathlon at the 11th hour due to the last set of water quality results which clearly indicated that the previous weeks high rain fall levels caused a deterioration in water quality making the swim unsafe. Focus Ireland would like to thank all participants for their support and enthusiasm on the day given that many had trained for months to be in shape for the swim leg of the race. Q102 DJ Robbie Kane helped keep everybody going with sounds from the 80’s.
Some great pictures of the event capturing participants, volunteers and Dublin City Centre are available on the flicker link available from the Focus Ireland website www.focusireland.ie. If you would like photos on the flicker link emailed to you, please let us know the code of the photo which you would like by emailing events@focusireland.ie.
We would like to thank all who participated, volunteered, donated to and supported in anyway to the day! A big thank you also to all the hundreds of spectators who came out to cheer on the athletes and add to the day’s fun. The event has raised over €120,000 to date to help people who are homeless.