Van Buttingha Wichers & Wilson Win B2R Harbourman
Alex Van Buttingha Wichers and Ciara Wilson were ahead of the rest, taking two strong victories as racing returned to Wicklow.
Almost 400 people took to the water for the Base2Race Harbourman standard distance triathlon – a 1,500m swim in the deep water off Wicklow Harbour, a rolling 40km out and back bike and a challenging 10km run which includes the infamous harbour steps!
Provisional Results & Pics
Provisional results are up now on ChipIt.ie and we’ll have hundreds of images from the race right here on our website shortly.
Van Buttingha Blasts Home in First Olympic Effort
In his first race over the Standard Distance, Alex Van Buttingha Wichers was unstoppable.
The teenager was second out of the water with a ultra fast 00:20:42 swim. He remarked after the race that he spent much of the bike anticipating the loss of his lead but this never happened – although second placed Anthony O’Brien did pull back more than 2mins during the 40km leg, Van Buttingha Wichers lead was too large.
He arrived in to T2 well clear and maintained his advantage on the 10km run which he completed in a very strong 00:35:34 to win his first standard distance race and his first Triathlon National Series race in 01:59:04.
Anthony O’Brien left himself with some work to do following the swim, but work he did as he used a powerful bike leg to make his way through the top men. The quickest run split of the top three men (00:35:05) secured his second place on 02:00:21 ahead of Daniel McManus who finished almost precisely 2mins later for third place.
Wilson Claims Second Victory of 2022 Series
Just weeks after her victory in Round 6 at Skerries Triathlon, Ciara Wilson showed she’s still on top form as she won Base2Race Harbourman by almost four minutes.
Wilson was strong across all disciplines – a 00:23:06 swim, a 01:09:23 bike and the quickest run of the day (00:39:58) gave her time to savour her victory. And now that she has her mandatory Standard Distance result to add to three Sprint scores, she looks likely to rocket to the top of the 2022 Triathlon National Series league table.
Wilson said afterwards that the hilly Wicklow roads made the victory all the sweeter:
“It was a tough race but I am happy with how I got on, I knew there was going to be a good few of the women here so I knew I had my work cut out for me to take the win.”
And she confirmed her ambition to add the Triathlon National Series to her Duathlon title from earlier this year:
“I think why not, I think my swim has come on an awful lot and I think I am showing that in races now. It’s a long season, there’s 27 rounds and we are only half way through so we just have to se what happens.”
With a come-from-behind performance, Megan Roberts claimed second place. Roberts swam 00:25:47 but her 01:08:58 bike split moved her up amongst the leaders before T2. The run gave Roberts a chance to further rise through the field as she moved in to second place in the final stages of the run, crossing the line in 02:18:28.
Aisling Wyer from Naas Triathlon Club swam superbly at Harbourman and was quickest out of the water on 00:21:59. This was the foundation for her first podium in the Triathlon National Series – she crossed the line for third in 02:19:42.
