from Sean Bailey (Comans S.C) There was a huge turnout for the Portumna triathlon which was staged at the Shannon Oaks Hotel on Saturday 27th with a total of “170” competitors taking part in the event which certainly had an international feel to it. The “mini try” because of its much shorter duration proved to be an exceptionally exciting event to watch as there is such a small margin of error in which an athlete can make back time lost in transition.
The swimming conditions were perfect (although a bit cold for me) and the majority of the swimmers were out within a minute of each other.
Maedbh Hurst of Ballinasloe Athletics Club the first to emerge from the water and her experience showed through as she carried her lead through to the finish taking first place with a time of 15 minutes 19 seconds.
In second place for the girls, was Sarah Kelly from the Irish Tri Club with a time of 17 minutes 4 seconds, and although Sarah beat Maedbh in the Ballinasloe meeting she found it hard to match her flawless athletic performance this time.
Although the boys failed to take the overall win the race between Darragh Bailey of the Irish Tri Club (which is based in Roscommon) and Martin Murray of the Predator Tri Club in Loughrea was absolutely scintillating.
Darragh emerged from the water in second place well ahead of Martin but again struggled in transition being overtaken by Martin and 8 of his Predator team mates.
However Darraghs experience on the bike saw him claw back all his lost time returning to transition just 10 seconds adrift of Maedbh Hurst and some 30 seconds up on Martin.
Alas it was a short lived lead as the smooth athletic strides of Martin had proved too much for Darragh and by the halfway mark on the run Darragh again found himself chasing the lead.
Martin took first place for the boys with 15 minutes 47 seconds and Darragh finished just 2 seconds behind with (15:49)
The sprint triathlon saw 150 swimmers taking to the water and although the conditions would ordinarily favour the swimmers the low water temperature (just 5 Degrees C) played into the hands of the more experienced Triathletes.
Just as in the mini tri, Keith Butler from Nenagh Tri Club who was the first to emerge from the water in the sprint and maintained his lead throughout taking victory with a time of 1:04:26 over 2 minutes ahead of second place man Ronan Hayes from Cork with 1:06:30 and third place Daren Nevin from Nenagh with 1:06:45.
For the ladies first place went to Irene Walsh from Dublin with 1:09:17 second went to Tara Whyte from Galway with 1:15:03 and third went to the only Australian competitor Kate Meagher with 1:16:53.
The final stage of this series will take place next weekend on Saturday the 4th October in Portrunny Co Roscommon so we will be hoping to have a large local contingent there not only to take part but to cheer on the swimmers from Comans Swimming Club.
For more information on upcoming events and to register online log on to www.runireland.com