The Year in Review: National Champs Part 1

In our next review article, we take a look back at this year’s Sprint, Standard and Middle Distance National Championships. As well as the race for each overall national title, hundreds of triathletes raced for their chance to become National Champion in their Age Group.

This year’s national champs were as exciting as they come and saw three athletes, Con Doherty, Maeve Gallagher and Hilary Hughes become double National Champs. Gallagher and Doherty won both the Sprint and Standard Distance titles while Hughes won the Middle Distance and Duathlon titles.

Huge thanks to Waterford Triathlon Club, Westport Triathlon Club and Tri Limits Triathlon Club for hosting these 2021 championships and making them a fun and safe day of racing for all.

Hilary Hughes and Niall Cornyn win in Tyrone

The first National Champs of the season also kicked off the 2021 BMW Triathlon National Series in great style – TriTyrone on the 31st of July.

Just under 400 competitors gathered at 9am on the shore of the pocket sized lake Eskragh for the biggest event of 2021 so far. TriTyrone won race of the year in 2019 and conditions could not have been better for the event’s first staging since then – warm but not hot, light winds and a flat calm lake.

Fresh from a very strong performance at IRONMAN Lanzarote, Hilary Hughes went in to TriTyrone with the favourites tag firmly around her neck. The defending Middle Distance National Champ took home the title for the second time, and set a new course record of 4hrs 36mins 02 secs in the process! Eithne McGorman was second and Catherine Sands third.

Showing respect for her rivals, Hughes said afterwards that she didn’t feel like the favourite heading in to the race: “You never know and you can never take it for granted.”

She added that while she paced the bike well, the going did get tough on the run.

“I thought, it’s half a marathon, it’s going to be so much easier (than a full marathon) but it was hard enough. I guess you’re trying to pick up the pace a little bit.”

In the men’s race, Niall Cornyn won his first national title, at his first middle distance race! Oran McGee was second and Stephen Donnelly third.

A delighted Cornyn said afterwards that his first national champs medal has been a long time coming: “I’ve come second placed three times at the National Duathlon Champs, this is my first middle distance race so to come out with the win, I am chuffed.”

“At the 17 or 18km mark (on the run) I blew up and I was like ‘get me home, I just need to get home’ then when I saw that blue carpet, I said, I’ve got this.”

Read our full review of race day here.

The Sprint Distance National Champs at Hook or by Crook

You might think that a race scheduled for late September is bound to be cold and most likely pretty autumnal weather wise. This year’s National Sprint Championships, held at Boland’s BMW Hook or by Crook, were anything but…

Calm and (relatively) warm waters greeted triathletes for the swim and the sunny south east lived up to its name with unseasonably high temperatures. All this, plus top class race organising by Waterford Triathlon Club, added up to an unbeatable race atmosphere for the 500 triathletes vying for the National Championships in their age group.

In the women’s race Maeve Gallagher put together an impressive performance across the three disciplines to earn the title of Sprint Distance National Champion for the first time.

A rolling start saw Gallagher choose to start near the front of her wave to get some clear water ahead of her, and she succeeded. Exiting in the chase pack that was just behind swim leader Ralf Bodamer, Gallagher had just Orla Walsh for company. Cavan Triathlon Club’s Olivia and Charlotte Moore, along with Shannon Kelly were approximately thirty seconds off the pace at this point.

Putting in her customarily strong bike split for the quickest twenty kilometres of the day, 34:58, only the challenging hill out of transition and the cross country run lay between Maeve and the top of the podium. Keeping her time trial effort strong on the run, she also had the quickest split of the women’s field for 17:28 to claim the national title.

As the drama unfolded ahead of him in Wave 1, multiple-time National Champ and Team Ireland Triathlete Con Doherty got to work after starting in the third wave of athletes.

Beaten only by Ralf Bodamer over the 750 metre swim course, Doherty spent the bike and run courses moving through the field. Completing in the quickest time to become 2021 Sprint Distance National Champ, Con Doherty enjoyed racing in the rolling start. Aichlinn O’Reilly finished second and Niall Cornyn third.

Speaking afterwards, Doherty said;

“It’s fun in a way because you don’t really know where you are, you just have to keep going hard. It’s a different dynamic, I enjoyed it to be honest.”

Read the full race report here.

Two in a Row for Gallagher and Doherty

On the 25th of September, the last weekend of the 2021 BMW Triathlon National Series, Westport Triathlon Club hosted the Standard Distance National Champs.

The day dawned cloudy but calm in the shadow of Croagh Patrick in Westport Harbour. With water temperatures of around 16 degrees, the 1500m swim course was about as inviting as they come.

Over 500 athletes were racing in Westport across sprint and standard distance races. The sprint athletes were out on course first, which created a super atmosphere at swim start for the National Championship and BMW Triathlon National Series standard distance race.

For the second time in a week, Mayo’s Maeve Gallagher won a national title. Following up her win at the Sprint Distance National Champs in Waterford, Maeve looked in control and comfortable throughout the Standard Distance National Championship race.

Emerging from the water second overall just 10 seconds behind Con Doherty, Maeve had the best swim split of the women’s field by almost two and a half minutes. Due to starting at the beginning of the rolling start, this meant that Gallagher was out front from the off and held that position throughout. Hilary Hughes won silver and Shannon Kelly bronze.

Often racing away from home, Maeve Gallagher really enjoyed the support on her local course;

“It was great. It was kind of my home race because all the marshals knew me and my Granny and Grandad are here, my family so I really wanted to go out there and put in a good performance so I was delighted with it really.”

In the men’s race, Westport Triathlon Club occupied the top two spaces with previous race winners Con Doherty (2017) and Aichlinn O’Reilly (2018) enjoying racing on familiar territory.

Choosing to start a little further back in the rolling start, Con Doherty entered the water thirty to forty seconds behind the first athlete Ciarán Madden. The only athlete to swim sub 20 minutes, Doherty overtook all those in front to lead out of the water, and there he stayed. Keeping the pressure on, Doherty was quickest on the bike and went on to run 30:45 for 9.8k to post the fastest splits on all three disciplines. Con Doherty is now both Sprint and Standard Distance National Champion for 2021. Aichlinn O’Reilly won silver and Ciarán Madden bronze.

Read the recap of how all the action unfolded here.