Youth Series at Lough Cutra
Three Youth Series events were raced on Saturday at Lough Cutra Multisport Festival with almost 70 teenagers competing on the challenging south Galway course.
The race was Round 4 of the Youth Series supported by Costcutter – and with an athlete’s best three events counting towards their final score, Lough Cutra and this weekend’s other Youth Series race at Tried and Tested Triathlon could go a long way towards identifying the leaders in the overall series.
16-17 Year Olds
First up were the 16 -17 year olds, who competed across a full sprint distance triathlon in the same wave as the adults.
Ross McGuinness performed superbly to finish third overall in the race (behind elite triathlete Con Doherty no less) and win the male 16 -17 Youth Series category.
Second place was taken by Sean McMahon with a particularly strong swim while Finn Buck from Wicklow Triathlon Club finished in third, one minute later.
Charlotte Moore was not only the winner of the female 16-17 Youth Series category but the overall sprint distance winner at Lough Cutra! She came home in a time of 1hr 19mins 10secs. Olivia Moore claimed second place (both in the race and the Youth Series category) while third went to Amy Lundy.
14-15 Year Olds
In the afternoon it was the turn of the 14-15 year olds and an incredible race between Mathys Bocquet and Ethan Doherty. After matching each other precisely on the swim and bike, both came in to T2 together. On the run Bocquet from Predator TC in Loughrea pulled clear to win by just six seconds over Doherty with Ryan Lundy finishing in third place.
In the female 14-15 year old’s race, Chloe Bennett put in a confident performance to claim her second win and third podium in this year’s Youth Series. Grace Byrne from Midland Triathlon Club was a comfortable second with Sadbh Moore equally clear of her next nearest rival in third place.
12-13 Year Olds
Hot on the heels of the 14-15 year olds were the 12-13 year old athletes. On holidays with her family, Trinity Clement made it a trip to remember as she won the female category with a superb swim-bike-run in a field that was ultra competitive – Amelie Bocquet finished in second less than 90secs later while Lara Buck claimed third a half minute after that.
In the male 12-13 year olds race, Luke O’Doherty, Declan O’Connell and Matthew Mahony went 1-2-3.
Well done to all of the Youth Series athletes who raced at Lough Cutra! The provisional results from the day are available on StuWeb
