International Round-Up: Weekend 20th/21st October

Triathlon Ireland High Performance athletes raced at two international locations this weekend; the 2018 Salinas ITU Triathlon World Cup and the  2018 Hong Kong ASTC Sprint Triathlon Asian Cup with top 15 finishes in both.

2018 Salinas ITU Triathlon World Cup

Having raced at the 2018 Sarasota Bradenton ITU World Cup in Florida, Darren Dunne and Con Doherty travelled to Ecuador to race on Sunday, 21 October at the 2018 Salinas ITU Triathlon World Cup. Coming out of the swim with a deficit of 15 seconds on the leaders, both Doherty and Dunne closed the gap over the four laps of the 20km bike course.

Darren Dunne put in the fastest split of the field with Doherty just eight seconds slower in 26:59.

Out on the run, 2018 Standard Distance National Champion Doherty completed the five kilometres in 14:56 to cross the line 12th in 52.46, 25 seconds behind winner David Castro Fajardo. Dunne finished in 53:57 for 40th position in the large men’s field.

2018 Hong Kong ASTC Sprint Triathlon Asian Cup 

Chris Mintern, Ailbhe Carroll and Carolyn Hayes travelled to Hong Kong for the ASTC Sprint Triathlon Asian Cup. 

Aquathlon National Champion Ailbhe Carroll entered T1 in tenth position after a strong swim, with Carolyn Hayes 19 seconds back in 19th. Sprint and Standard Distance National Champ Carolyn Hayes cycled and ran strongly to finish in an impressive 11th position in a large field of 37 athletes. Ailbhe Carroll completed in 1:09:18 for 26th position.

Sprint Distance National Champion Chris Mintern was among a large lead group of athletes that were unfortunately disqualified post-race for short-cutting the run course.

All three athletes race again next Saturday, 27th October in the 2018 Tongyeong ITU Triathlon World Cup.