Wilson and O’Brien Win Skerries

Two of the county’s best duathletes showed they can get their feet wet and still come out on top at Round 6 of the Triathlon National Series at Skerries Triathlon in north Dublin.

Ciara Wilson and Anthony O’Brien were this winter’s strongest athletes – winning the Duathlon National Series after multiple rounds of racing. Both came out on top at Skerries to claim victory at the extremely popular event hosted by Fingal Triathlon Club.

More than 500 people took to the line for the National Series event and the National Aquabike Championships with a further 200 race the first Youth Series event of 2022.

Women’s Race

In the women’s race, Ciara Wilson pulled off a come from behind performance to clinch victory on the run in an exciting three way battle with Olivia and Charlotte Moore.

Olivia Moore began the race with a superb swim performance – the quickest of any swimmer in the entire race – to head in to T1 21secs ahead of her sibling Charlotte.

Charlotte pulled six seconds back in transition but on the bike Olivia added another 20secs to her lead.

She came in to T2 as the leader of the race by 35secs over Charlotte. But both sisters had to contend with Ciara Wilson, who after giving up 2mins on the swim was making in-roads on the twins.

Slowly at first – her bike split brought her on 23secs closer to Olivia Moore by T2, but surely once the run was underway.

Wilson ran 18mins 19secs for the 5km – a superb time that saw her catch and pass the Moores, who at this stage had traded the lead. Wilson powered on to cross the line and claim her second Triathlon National Series win with a time of 01:11:59.

Second went to Charlotte Moore on 01:12:57, while Olivia Moore finished 3rd on 01:13:38.

Men’s Race

Reigning Duathlon National Series champ Anthony O’Brien showed he’s been putting in time in the pool with a clear victory in the men’s race. That said, O’Brien did ship time – 2mins 54secs to be precise – to the quickest man in the water Alex Van Buttingha Wichers. However he more than made amends on the bike with an incredibly strong performance that put him in to the lead before he finished the 20km.

On the run O’Brien never looked back, posting the quickest split of the day (00:16:24) to claim his first Triathlon National Series win.

After leading the race from the swim, Van Buttingha Wichers found himself in a battle with Piranha’s Killian Nolan during the bike but pulled out a strong sub 17min run to secure second place on 01:06:17. Nolan crossed the line a little over a minute later for an excellent 3rd.

Hamilton and O’Riordan Aquabike National Champions

Also racing in Skerries were the swim-bikers who lined up the 2022 Aquabike National Championships.

Ross Hamilton retained the title he won first in 2021 ahead of Jack Kennedy (2nd) and Michael McGloin in 3rd.

The women’s race was a close run affair with Danielle O’Riordan crossing the line just eight seconds ahead of Jennifer O’Sullivan to win the championship. Cathy Cunningham was third.

Results

Provisional Results from Skerries Triathlon are now live

View Michael Buckley’s gallery of images here.