Loughrea Sprint Triathlon 2014 Racing kicked off at Loughrea Lake yesterday with the first wave of swimmers entering the choppy water at 2:30pm. Three waves of swimmers at five-minute intervals set out from Longpoint with over three hundred and fifty hardy athletes taking part in the main sprint event. This was Predator Triathlon Club’s 9th annual sprint triathlon, held this year in conjunction with West Side Cycles. Building on the clubs previous success, this year’s race was a National Series event that also doubled as the inaugural Connacht Regional Championship. The lead swimmers made short work of the choppy conditions with Brian Harris from Wicklow TC exiting the water in under 10 minutes. Weather conditions changed for the worst, the rain came down as the lead swimmers were making their way through the first transition of the day. This made for a difficult start to the bike leg but the clouds parted and by the time the lead bikes touched down again in transition the sun was starting to come out. Graeme Stein posted the fastest bike split with a time of just over 31 minutes, a great result for the 20km hilly course in wet conditions. Darren Dunne made the run look like a walk in the park by finishing with the fastest run time of the day in a little over sixteen minutes. Darren’s overall time was 1hr 1 min 12sec. He was first home to claim victory in Predator Triathlon Clubs Loughrea Sprint Triathlon 2014. No stranger to Loughrea, Darren competed well here as a junior and finished on the podium in last years main sprint event. James Hoare of Prinaha TC came second after a tough race finishing just ten seconds ahead of third place finisher Graeme Stein. The ladies battled hard through the swim, bike and run - at times with mere seconds between them. Caoimhe Ni Mhurchu of Sligo TC was the first out of the water, setting a tough pace with a swim time of just over twelve minutes. Belpark TC were well represented with the next two ladies out of the water, Derval Devaney and Eimear Fitzmaurice. They wasted no time chasing Caoimhe, doing their best to reel her in on the challenging bike course. Once on the bike Eimear Fitzmaurice was unstoppable, posting the fastest bike and run split ensuring the win for her in a blistering1 hr 8mins 29 sec. The race was now on for second place! It was fought hard with Derval Devaney coming a close second to her Belpark team mate and Caoimhe Ni Mhurchu - hot on her heels - finishing third for the ladies. The whole day was a great success. Predator Triathlon Club & West Side Cycles would like to thank all who took part, especially the volunteers and helpers who gave up their bank holiday weekend to make the race such a safe and well run event. We wish all the athletes who took part great success for the 2014 racing season and look forward to seeing you all in Loughrea again next year!
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 18:14:15 +0000
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