Metalman, Carlingford & Skerries: The Weekend Round Up!
It was summer in September this weekend for triathlon, with almost 1000 people racing across three separate races in the BMW Triathlon National Series (not to mention the almost 100 teenagers in the Youth Series supported by Costcutter).
Read on to see who won what, find results and get links to our facebook galleries of competitor images.
Metalman Triathlon
First up was the inaugural running of Metalman Triathlon in Co. Waterford where 200 or so athletes were up literally before dawn in order to get started at 7am.
What laid ahead of them was not just the discovery of racing a new event but a challenging course and some deep competition in the second middle distance event of this year’s series.
In the men’s race, Aichlinn O’Reilly bossed proceedings from start to finish and crossed the line in under four hours. Along the way, he swam 24mins 01 secs – the quickest by some distance before moving quickly through transition and then putting in the fastest bike split of 2hrs 17mins 52secs. The Westport TC athlete was only bested on the run where Enda Bagnall put in the quickest split of 70mins 18secs (over what was a slightly short course).
In doing so, Bagnall claimed second place in 4hrs 7mins 55secs over Donnacha Kiely, who crossed the line only 42secs later to claim third place.
Murphy Wins Close Battle
In the women’s race, Ellen Murphy showed her swim and bike prowess to pull out a substantial lead over her competitors by T2. The Belpark TC athlete was third quickest out of the water and second quickest overall on the bike to head on to the run with a 12minute advantage over eventual second placed athlete Marie Claire McCarthy from Clonmel TC.
McCarthy gave up all of this time on the swim and with but on the run the script was flipped as Murphy began to slow and McCarthy clawed back more and more time.
In the end 12 minutes was whittled down to just 96secs at the finish line with Murphy holding on for a hard fought victory. McCarthy crossed in second place two minutes ahead of Kate Fitzpatrick from Wicklow TC, who was well clear of the rest of the field in third place.
Results from Metalman Triathlon are available here and you can see 100s of great photos from the day taken by Damien Jackson on our facebook page
Round 5: Skerries Triathlon
The longest running triathlon in Ireland, Skerries Triathlon took place today Sunday, 5th September in North Dublin. Run by Fingal Triathlon Club, the race saw almost 500 triathletes take part in the fifth round of the BMW Triathlon National Series in the morning, and over 100 junior triathletes in the Youth Series supported by CostCutter in the afternoon.
This signals one of the largest races that will take place in 2021 – with Fingal Triathlon Club working with Triathlon Ireland Technical Officials to deliver a safe, fun race for those attending, and all within Covid-19 Guidelines.
Fay Wins the Women’s Event
Just over two minutes separated the podium, with Aoife Fay coming home in first on the fast, flat course based around the seaside town of Skerries in North County Dublin.
Portmarnock Triathlon’s Sarah Hawkshaw was second, 43 seconds behind, for her first podium of the series. Sasha Gannon from Cavan Triathlon Club was third.
Men’s Event
Rolling starts mean that each competitor has to give their all in a time trial effort, without knowing where they are sitting in the race overall. Alistair Duffield had by far the quickest swim of the day to set him up for his bike and run, eventually finishing 1:48 ahead of second placed David Cahill.
In third, Hugh Feeley was just three seconds behind Cahill in the final standings, a virtual sprint to the line!
For full race results, visit ChipIt here. We’ll have a full round up of the Youth Series on our website shortly.
Round 6: Carlingford Triathlon
This weekend had a race distance for everyone – sprint, standard and middle distances in Munster, Leinster and Ulster! Setanta Triathlon Club’s Carlingford Triathlon saw 160 athletes tackle the standard distance 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run in good conditions.
Sands’ Second Podium of 2021
Finishing third in this year’s Middle Distance National Champs at TriTyrone at the end of July, Catherine Sands showed her form by winning at Carlingford. She will be one to watch for the overall BMW Triathlon National Series and will be on the points hunt throughout the rest of the month!
Naas Tri Club’s Michelle Doyle was second in 2:22:26 with Setanta’s own Gretta Loughran almost five minutes back to finish in third place.
Muckno Triathlon Club’s Oran McGee went one better than his recent TriTyrone result to win the men’s event at Carlingford Triathlon.
Leading throughout, McGee finished eight minutes ahead of nearest rival Daniel McManus from Narrows Triathlon Club. Matthew Kinkaid crossed the line third to complete the podium.
Full results are available from Core Timing.
Picture Galleries
You can view all picture galleries from these races on our Facebook page, and catch up on all the action on our other social channels.
