Dunne and Carr Win Two Provinces Super Series

Reigning Super Series champion Darren Dunne delivered on his favourite status while Elizabeth Carr made a breakthrough performance at round three of the 2017 Super Series at Two Provinces Triathlon in Lanesborough.

Dunne Does it Again

More than 35 men lined out on the northernmost stretch of Lough Rea in windy, humid and overcast conditions.

The 750m swim caused the men’s field to split in to three packs, with Cillian Tierney, Aichlinn O’Reilly, James Walton and Darren Dunne the first four of of the water, followed closely by David Sheridan, Luke McCarron, Jonathan Martin, last year’s National Series winner Tom McEnery, James Mintern and Ross Higgins.

Dunne, Walton and Tierney opened a slight gap at the beginning of the 20km draft legal bike leg but within 6km they were caught due to the work of O’Reilly and Hell of the West winner Rory Sexton, who had bridged across after coming out of the water in the second swim pack.

Despite not being successful in launching anyone clear, a series of attacks on the bike saw a number of athletes drop-off the back and by T2 the leading group consisted of just O’Reilly, Dunne, Higgins, Mintern, Tierney and Sexton.

Brendan Crawford and Sebastian Helka led in the second bike pack of about 15 riders approximately one minute later, meaning the win was to be contested between the leading five athletes heading out of T2.

Dunne pushed on immediately out of transition and having won Two Provinces a number of times already was on familiar territory. He came home with the fastest run split of the day to win in 58mins 41secs.

Cillian Tierney, blew off the cobwebs of his recently completed Leaving Cert to take 2nd place in this first big race of the season. he recorded a time of 50mins 02secs with Super Series leader Aichlinn O’Reilly cementing his position by claiming third place in precisely one hour.

Through the field there were impressive performances by Junior and Cat 2 athletes: James Mintern placed 4th in just his second Super Series race while Tom McEnery’s Super Series debut saw him claim 7th place.

Finish Position				Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Finish Time
1.	Darren	Dunne		00:09:55	00:00:42	00:30:21	00:00:30	00:17:10	00:58:41
2.	Cillian	Tierney	Tralee TC	00:09:53	00:00:48	00:30:18	00:00:30	00:17:31	00:59:02
3.	Aichlinn	O’Reilly	Westport TC	00:09:54	00:00:52	00:30:10	00:00:37	00:18:24	01:00:00
4.	James	Mintern	Cork TC	00:10:00	00:00:42	00:30:18	00:00:32	00:18:32	01:00:06
5.	Rory	Sexton		00:10:20	00:00:35	00:30:08	00:00:30	00:18:37	01:00:13
6.	James	Walton	Triangle Triathlon Club	00:09:54	00:00:41	00:30:23	00:00:29	00:18:50	01:00:18
7.	Tom	Mcenery	Piranha TC	00:09:59	00:00:41	00:31:20	00:00:37	00:17:42	01:00:20
8.	Ben	Ryan	Predator TC	00:10:25	00:00:45	00:30:47	00:00:36	00:17:51	01:00:26
9.	Brendan	Murphy	Belpark TC	00:11:05	00:00:41	00:31:11	00:00:38	00:17:15	01:00:53
10.	Patrick	Peters	Wheelworx	00:10:57	00:00:33	00:30:27	00:00:32	00:18:35	01:01:06
11.	Brendan	Crawford	Belpark TC	00:10:53	00:00:44	00:30:19	00:00:30	00:18:41	01:01:09
12.	Luke	McCarron	Northwest TC	00:09:58	00:00:41	00:31:20	00:00:31	00:18:42	01:01:15
13.	David	Richardson	Gotri TC	00:10:23	00:00:48	00:30:44	00:00:34	00:19:05	01:01:36
14.	Ross	Higgins	Limerick TC	00:10:07	00:00:40	00:31:10	00:00:33	00:19:08	01:01:40
15.	Stephen	Donnelly		00:11:07	00:00:42	00:31:10	00:00:34	00:18:07	01:01:42
16.	Jonathan	Martin	247 Triathlon Club	00:09:58	00:00:47	00:31:15	00:00:36	00:19:46	01:02:24
17.	David	Sheridan	Longford TC	00:09:56	00:00:42	00:31:19	00:00:36	00:20:05	01:02:41
18.	Patrick	Barry	Pulse TC	00:10:31	00:00:50	00:31:36	00:00:34	00:19:17	01:02:51
19.	Sebastian	Helka	South Coast TC	00:09:47	00:01:00	00:31:08	00:00:36	00:20:42	01:03:15
20.	Ryan	Sharkey	Olympian TC	00:11:23	00:00:56	00:33:32	00:00:36	00:17:26	01:03:56
21.	Cathal	Browne	Ennis Tri Club Co. Clare	00:10:34	00:00:40	00:30:44	00:00:54	00:21:35	01:04:29
22.	Warren	Roche		00:10:20	00:00:49	00:33:55	00:00:44	00:18:52	01:04:42
23.	Niall	Cornyn		00:12:40	00:00:48	00:33:24	00:00:36	00:17:22	01:04:52
24.	Marcus	Mcgowan		00:10:35	00:00:42	00:32:36	00:00:38	00:20:30	01:05:02
25.	Michael	Monahan	Naas TC	00:11:15	00:01:03	00:31:33	00:00:38	00:20:49	01:05:21
26.	Sean	Husband		00:12:38	00:00:40	00:33:36	00:00:32	00:18:03	01:05:31
27.	Cian	Cloonan	Predator TC	00:10:20	00:00:52	00:31:46	00:00:49	00:22:19	01:06:08
28.	Niall	Foley		00:11:01	00:00:43	00:34:03	00:00:39	00:20:00	01:06:29
30.	Patrick	Fahy	Belpark TC	00:11:18	00:00:48	00:34:10	00:00:33	00:19:41	01:06:32
32.	Ciaran	Madden	Longford TC	00:10:26	00:00:52	00:34:31	00:00:42	00:20:28	01:07:01
33.	Emmett	Mullan	Northwest TC	00:10:39	00:00:45	00:34:24	00:00:38	00:21:48	01:08:16
37.	Jack	Molloy	Drogheda TC	00:12:40	00:00:50	00:33:22	00:00:35	00:21:39	01:09:07
39.	Jamie	Collins		00:13:20	00:00:42	00:35:15	00:00:43	00:21:20	01:11:22
44.	Alex	Gray	Wicklow TC	00:11:28	00:00:35	00:31:48	00:00:30	00:00:22	DNF
	James	Hoare	Piranha TC						DNF

Women’s Race

A small women’s field of ten Super Series athletes were next up. From the beginning, Erin McConnell pulled out a twenty second advantage coming out of the 750m swim over Aoife Fay and Niamh Corry with Elizabeth Carr and Kirsten Huysamen following 45secs back.

On the bike Caron Ryan moved up through the field to come in to T2 with the leading group of Fay, Huysamen and Carr, Niamh Corry and McConnell.

Fay ran strongly on the 5km out and back course but she wasn’t able to stay with Elizabeth Carr, who ran a 19mins 02secs 5km to win her first Super Series race in 1hr 6mins 31secs. 

The victory is a significant achievement for Carr, who only started focusing on triathlon last autumn after spending most of her time competing in athletics. 

She said afterwards that this background stood to her during the race: “I knew I had to stay with the girls on the bike to give myself a good chance on the run and then (once on the run) I knew if I just kept going towards the finish I’d be ok.”

Aoife Fay crossed the line 25secs behind Carr for second place while 19 year old Caron Ryan recorded a fantastic third place in only her second Super Series race.

Rank	Name	Last Name	Club	Swim	T1	Cycle	T2	Run	FINISH Time
1	Elizabeth	Carr	Midland TC	00:10:54	00:01:00	00:35:01	00:00:31	00:19:02	01:06:31
2	Aoife	Fay		00:10:37	00:00:49	00:35:23	00:00:33	00:19:33	01:06:56
3	Caron	Ryan	Predator TC	00:11:16	00:00:45	00:34:54	00:00:37	00:21:06	01:08:40
4	Kirsten	Huysamen	Limerick TC	00:10:59	00:00:55	00:34:55	00:00:38	00:21:16	01:08:44
5	Niamh	Corry	Fingal TC	00:10:37	00:00:47	00:35:31	00:00:41	00:21:23	01:09:01
6	Ellen	Murphy	Belpark TC	00:13:26	00:00:51	00:34:45	00:00:38	00:21:24	01:11:05
7	Erin	McConnell	Peninsula TC	00:10:13	00:00:46	00:35:56	00:00:38	00:24:13	01:11:49
8	Kathryn	Fahy	Limerick TC	00:13:07	00:00:50	00:36:54	00:00:43	00:23:23	01:14:58
9	Eva	Spencer		00:11:07	00:00:56	00:37:37	00:00:50	00:27:38	01:18:10
10	Lauren	Strange		00:11:41	00:00:54	00:40:50	00:00:38	00:24:11	01:18:16

Olejniczak and O’Keeffe Win National Series Races

Following the Super Series events, it was the turn of the non-drafting format of triathlon to take over as almost 500 athletes competed for National Series points in one of the country’s most popular triathlons.

In the men’s race, Nass TC’s Mariusz Olejniczak completed the bike course in percisley 30mins and stayed ahead of the fast finishing Mick Fogarty to win in 1hr 2mins 23secs. Fogarty, of Athlone TC, ran an impressive 17mins 09secs to cross the line in second, 29secs back with Conor Tiernan of Athy TC finishing in third place in 1hr 4mins 30secs.

A very close women’s race saw Cork TC’s Amy O’Keeffe take over the lead at the half way mark of the 5km run to win with a time of 1hr 11mins 51secs. Sally McHugh of Belpark TC was second 37secs later with Esther Bayon 3rd a further 17secs back.

Full provisional results from the National Series event are available on http://coretiming.ie/

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