www.bryankeane.com Bryan Keane finally reached some of the goals he set himself years ago to compete at the top level of international sport.
Although his success appeared to come suddenly for some, to the people around him it was the result of years of hard work and dedication.
Mastering a sport that involves three disciplines can take a long time and although Bryan didn’t know it back then, the foundations to his success were being laid more than a decade ago here in Cork.
From the age of 12, Bryan’s mum Margaret got up at half five every morning and took Bryan to Mayfield Swimming pool to train with the Dolphin club.
Under the tutelage of Eddie Campion Bryan spent the best part of five years racing at events around the country.
But Bryan was always restless and after comprehensively beating his older brother in the 10km run at the Pres school sports, he realised his future might lie on dry land.
And so Bryan ventured down to Leevale Athletic club one September evening and began another five years of racing and training, but this time to considerably more success than in the pool.
During his time with Leevale Bryan became one of the top junior athletes in the country and has the rare honor of being able to say that he won a team Bronze at the European Cross Country Championships in Slovenia in the year 2000.
He was also the All Ireland Schools 3,000 meters track champion for the Presentation Brother’s College on the Mardyke as well as the winner of dozens of other races at County Provincial, and National level.
After he left school, Bryan was offered the chance to take up a number of running scholarships in the USA, however he realised that there was more to life and so, off he went to study in Dublin, He graduated in 2006 and received a first class honors degree for the National College of Art and Design in Fine Art Print,
After five years in the pool and five on the track, it was of course time for Bryan to start another sport. In Dublin he began cycling competitively with Dublin Wheelers and again was no stranger to success, being selected to race twice for the Irish national team. Next stop was Belgium, where Bryan spent two though seasons living and racing with the Sean Kelly cycling academy.
But time was passing and Bryan was always conscious that cycling at the end of the day wouldn’t pay the bills and neither would Tim and Margaret!
So he returned here to Cork where he worked as a photographer for both the Irish Examiner and the Evening Echo, and after a while, decided like many young Irish people to do some traveling.
It was whilst in Australia that Bryan’s winding road finally reached a destination. He started triathlon initially to meet people whilst living in Sydney but soon it became apparent to him and those around him that the years spent running, swimming and cycling back home made him a natural at this new sport on the other side of the world.
Before long he was winning races and creating waves in Australia, the ripples of which slowly began reached Irish shores. This summer Bryan finally came home and the rest is why you are reading this on his website
