None As the mists lifted and the summer sun rose it was clear that this was the day that the Dooley TriAthy course was made for. Warm temperatures and light winds combined to allow competitors to chase the fast times they came looking for. The men’s field was stacked with some of the best athletes to come from the UK and Ireland.
• Multiple world champion Spenser Smith (Planet X), current UK Ironman 70.3 champion Fraser Cartmell (Total Racing Inc) and multiple World Aquathon champion Richard Stannard had all come over from the UK.
• The domestic competition came in the form of Ireland’s current No. 1 ranked triathlete; Gavin Noble, the defending Irish Champion; Brian Campball, the on form athlete; Art MacManusa as well as current Irish Ironman record holder; Trevor Woods and current Irish Duathlon champion Liam Dunne on his way back from injury.
Stannard led out the swim as he had in the European Triathlon Championships only two weeks ago. Stannard tried a few quick changes in pace and direction to drop the pack of athletes using him as a break water. Smith and Campball fell away relatively early. However Noble and Cartmell could not be dropped from his draft. This trio entered transition in under 16minutes, which set the tone for the fast times to come.
Once on the bike Cartmell started to open up a gap, which grew to 2.5mins over Noble and 3.5mins over Smith by the end of the bike. This looked like the eventual podium positions leading into the 10km run. However the fleet footed runners of Stannard and Campball had to be factored in. Stannard’s 32:30 run allowed him to pass Smith and pull himself back onto the podium. Meanwhile Campbell passed both MacManusa and Smith on route to a 32:40 run which left him in 4th place and 2nd in the Irish Championships. Smith then held on for 5th, with MacManusa finishing 6th and 3rd in the Irish Championships. MacManusa’s result combined with Liam Dunne’s 10th place and Owen Dwyer’s 13th place gave Belpark Tri Club yet another Irish Club Championships.
Cartmell’s time of 1:47:35 is almost 3mins inside the previous Irish all-comers record set on this course last year by Cyrille Mazure (France), while Noble took over 4 minutes off his own Irish record set on this course last year with a 1:50:03 finishing time.
The women’s race contained all the best domestic women. Even those unable to do all three legs of the race joined in to what was the most competitive and most difficult to call field seen in years. Olympic qualified Emma Davis did the swim and run in her final preparation for the World Championships next weekend, while the defending Irish Champion and currently injured Aileen Morrison did the swim and bike before retiring due to a foot injury picked up last weekend.
Boyd leading out of the water.
A glimpse of the future was seen in the start to finish lead and victory of nineteen year old Rachel Boyd. The other podium positions swapped a number of times during the race, but nobody could catch Boyd on her way to what will surely be her first of many Irish Championships. Katarina Baldinger’s swim left her well outside the top ten, but her sub 65minute bike brought her up into 4th spot by the start of the run. Elena Maslova had used an almost equally strong bike to start the run in 3rd spot. Last years TriAthy Champion Clair Connor started the run in 2nd position, but the heat started to take its tole as Connor slipped to 3rd spot from the fleet footed Baldinger, then in the final kilometre to 4th position to last years second place finisher Maslova.
