White and Woods Standard Distance National Champs

Russell White and Becky Woods are Ireland’s new Standard Distance Triathlon National Champions following a morning of fast and fiercely competitive racing at Pikeman Triathlon.

The title is White’s second, following his victory at DCT way back in 2015 and comes as a step along his path to full health and fitness following a period in hospital for treatment for Crohn’s Disease.

For Woods, the race was her first national title at Standard Distance and in fact was her first outing at the distance in 2022.

Second places went to Niall Cornyn and Shauna Doellken O’Shea while Eoin Lyons and Aisling Wyer finished in third place and will pick up National Championship bronze medals at the Triathlon Ireland annual awards later this year.

The race was also Round 24 of the Triathlon National Series.

Full provisional results are on SportsSplits.com and head to our social media for video from the day.

White Fighting Back to Form

A stacked men’s field featured 2022 Duathlon and Middle Distance Champ Niall Cornyn, multiple times podium finisher Eoin Lyons, winner of the Duathlon Series and multiple National Series triathlons in 2022 Anthony O’Brien, plus Sheephaven winner Dave Sheridan.

But the name on everyone’s list of favourites was Tokyo Olympian Russell White. White was lining up for his first domestic race in a number of years but reputations can be deceptive when it comes to form. Pikeman was in fact White’s first race of 2022 and came just weeks after a period in hospital following a serious flare up his Crohn’s Disease – a condition he battled with in the run up to and during the Olympics.

“It’s been a hard year and the first proper triathlon this year,” White said after the race.

“Three months ago I was six days in a hospital bed, so I nearly thought it was going to retire me at that stage. So to be back racing in September and then taking the title and race at home actually means so much.”

White was first out of the water with more than 40secs over everyone else, he was also quickest on the bike and went on to the run with a decent lead.

White covered the final 10km run in a very fast 00:34:36 but behind him Niall Cornyn was melting tarmac with an incredibly quick 00:31:41. In the end, Cornyn drew close but not close enough to contest the win as White crossed the line in 01:50:54, 43secs ahead of Cornyn.

White said he found his first race back tough but was full of praise for the race.

“I haven’t really done many sessions wise, but it was just building up that endurance and a good base and (I am) just looking towards next year. I haven’t rushed back and that’s why I wanted to race at home, I haven’t been able to do that with chasing Tokyo and chasing points.”

“That swim was probably one of the nicest swims I’ve ever done. A calm flat ocean swim. It was cold in the morning but absolutely beautiful as we progressed through the race. So, you know, where else would you rather be?”

Russell White’s next plans are to get back to elite racing and chase qualification for this second Olympic Games.

“I feel in hindsight, I was so sick when I was there (in Tokyo) and I didn’t really get the fulfilment out of the race, which sounds a bit crazy when you sort of chase a dream like that.”

“I’m proud to go out there, but, you know, it’s not where I wanted to be. And so there’s still that drive to make a second Olympics and sort of do myself proud.”

“So it is a big driving force for getting healthy, getting stronger again and pushing on. Qualification opened the week that I was in hospital so that was hard to take but yeah, you when I was so sick your mindset completely changes.”

“It still is possible, you know, it’s not over yet. It definitely is exciting that, I can hopefully have better performances being a lot healthier than I was. And so I am looking forward to that.”

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Woods Wins with Dominating Performance

In the women’s race, Becky Woods came out of the water with some work to do – trailing Fiona Murphy, the fastest woman, by almost 2mins. But once on the bike, Woods began to make her way to the front of the field. She clocked a powerful 00:56:31 split over the 40km to come in to T1 with a healthy lead.

Then, once on to her favourite discipline of the run there was little doubt to the outcome of the women’s National Champs but Woods kept the pace ultra-high, covering the 10km in 00:37:19, almost four minutes quicker than the next quickest woman.

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She crossed the line in 02:04:10, a worthy winner of her first Standard Distance National Champs and said afterwards that she thoroughly enjoyed her experience:

“It was absolutely brilliant. Even in the morning, I think we were obviously freezing in transition. But with the hype and the kind of the positive vibes going around, everybody just couldn’t wait to go into the water.”

“The bike was a super flat course, so you can just pick up some excellent speed and then the people, the supporters in the side of the road, I think there were lots of the volunteers actually from Wexford, from Rosslare, which was amazing. They made you smile on the bike even though you’re just trying to keep their head down. So it’s fantastic.”

“And then back in transition, runners on and that’s my favourite part of the race. So it’s nice when your favourite part of the race is coming last. And it was once again the people and the organisers at the side of the road just they just kept making you smile. They were waving their flags, telling you to keep going.”

Woods’ next challenge is the IRONMAN 70.3 World Champs in the US which take place towards the end of October. She’s aiming to bring back some silver wear to Ireland.

“I got the win in in Marbella 70.3 So in terms of Age Groups, gosh, I’ve got to be on the podium.”

“But I suppose when you go to races like that, you really want to see how you do in the overall amateur field. So I’ll keep my my expectations to myself for it. I’d love to. I’d love to go and do well.”