from runireland team The Athleague Triathlon, based on the Suck Valley river and was held on Saturday morning in glorious sunshine.
The swim part is an adventurous 480m in which the athletes do 3 laps in shallow water but against a strong current on the way up and a fast downstream. The adventurous part is to find the quickest way on the way up, between diving up and down, walk/run or swimming against the current. This is a real challenge to develop mental and physical skills. This is a great setting to practice swimming against a strong current in safety as the river is shallow enough to stand up in all the way around the course. The river has actually been diverted from its original course around the old castle so this section has been manmade which is why it is so shallow. There is an old tunnel that you can still see under the bridge going underground to the next castle.
The cycle course was a simple loop in with nice and quiet scenery along the Suck Valley river. A straight 7km followed a turn at 10km. The bike course looked flat but appearances can be deceiving as there were some hills to challenge the participants.
The run was a simple out and back route with a nice little hill at the 3k mark.
Michael Flanagan was the overall winner after an amazing run passing last year’s winner Brendan Doyle who had to settle for 2nd place this year. Mark Tonkin finished 3rd after Brendan.
First female finisher was Paula Murray who overtook Angela Collins at the 2k mark on the run. Angela finished very close after Paula to be 2nd female finisher.
The main race was preceded by the mini triathlon which was won by Sarah Kelly, Nicole Gorry had a great race to finish 2nd and both girls have a great future ahead of them in sport.
Many thanks to all the marshalls from Coman’s Swim Club who receive a donation from runireland.com for giving up their time to steward the race. Thanks also to an Garda Siochana, the Suck Valley Tourism Co-op, Roscommon Kayak Club, Galway Water Safety Lifeguards and the Red Cross whose support ensured we had a safe and successful event.
Full results will follow soon.
Picture gallery can be found here:
https://www.irishtriathlon.com/runireland/255series09/Athleague09/index.htm
Remember if you would like a copy of the pictures in high quality resolution courtesy of Sean Bailey email us at info@runireland.com.
We look forward to seeing you in Portrunny next week.