Mixed Team Relay Championships 2021
Note: This article has been edited since its original publication to reflect Galway Triathlon Club’s status as the Mixed Team Relay Club National Champions. An earlier version identified GoTri as the national championship winners, Galway as the runners up in this competition and Ennis TC as the national championship bronze medalists.
Galway Triathlon Club have won the Mixed Team Relay Club National Championships.
The team of Ruaidhri Geraghty, Lisa Fahy, Kate Collins Smyth and Eugene Feely claimed the title at Lough Cutra Triathlon
Teams from Predator Triathlon Club claimed the silver and bronze medals.
Mixed Team Relay is without doubt the most exciting format of the sport of triathlon and sees a team of two women and two men each in turn complete a super sprint triathlon of 250m swim, 5km bike and 1.5km run before tagging their team mate in a special handover zone.
The event is also a testament to the strength and depth within a club – with four strong athletes necessary to bring home the title.
This year’s Mixed Team Relay Club Championships was a race within a race as it was run within Lough Cutra Castle Triathlon’s Mixed Team Relay event, a race which involved non-club and club teams.
On the day, it was one of these non-club teams that was the fastest over the course – the Go Tri & Friends team of Shannon Kelly, Rory Sexton, Maedbh Hurst and Stephen Teeling Lynch won the race on the day but with a team made up of Go-Tri registered and non-registered athletes, were ineligible for the title of the Mixed Team Relay Club National Champions.
Instead this title went to Galway, who were involved in a tight battle throughout the race with GoTri. While Galway crossed the line in second place, the national championship title was theirs as they mustered a full compliment of eligible athletes from within their club.
The Predator Youth team, who crossed the line in 4th took the silver national championship medal while the Predator ‘Smooth Operators’ won bronze.
How the Race Unfolded
After a strong start from Shannon Kelly, GoTri had built a comfortable lead with the closest battle taking place behind them between Ennis and Galway. However an unfortunate crash on the bike from the Ennis team left Galway clear in second place. And that’s how even at the midway point, the race appeared to be headed with GoTri enjoying a lead of more than two minutes.
Galway Come Back
A superb performance from Kate Collins Smyth brought Galway back within striking distance however. Collins Smyth handed over to Ruaidhri Geraghty, an athlete with a storied history of middle and long distance racing behind him but who on Saturday proved particularly fast over the short distances in Lough Cutra.
While Geraghty did loose some time to GoTri’s Stephen Teeling Lynch on the swim, once out of the water the race was on.
Lynch, revealed afterwards that he was racing at a disadvantage, riding a borrowed bike and still recovering from a crash a week ago and that he was counting on his team mates to build a lead up that he could take to the finish line. As a strategy it worked superbly – if only by a whisker.
With Geraghty closing at a rapid rate throughout the bike and run, Teeling Lynch had to dig deep to get his team over the line first, which he did in a collective time of 1hr 39mins 28secs.
The Galway team of Lisa Fahy, Eugene Feely, Kate Collins Smyth and Ruaidhri Geraghty finished a minute later, while Ennis Triathlon Club – consisting of Saoirse Davis, Stephen Rooney, Carla Griffin and Darragh O’Neill crossed in third. Not far behind them was the second eligible team of club athletes – Predator Youth who along with claiming the silver medal overall, also won the Junior competition.
Their club mates, Predator Smooth Operators crossed the line ten minutes later to claim the senior bronze medal while the club’s third team, Predator Youth 2, claimed the silver medal in the junior Club National Championships.
| Team Name | Finish Time | Placing |
| GoTri & Friends | 01:39:28 | 1 |
| GTC TriHard with a Vengeance | 01:40:40 | 2 |
| Ennis Tri | 01:50:04 | 3 |
| Predator Youth 1 | 01:50:48 | 4 |
| Predator Smooth Operators | 02:00:53 | 5 |
| GTC The Slow Mo’s | 02:04:17 | 6 |
| High PSI | 02:06:53 | 7 |
| Predator Youth 2 | 02:07:17 | 8 |
| Wexford Triathlon Club Purple | 02:19:16 | 9 |
| Wexford Tri Club Gold | 02:34:15 | 10 |
