Legend of The Lough Cross Triathlon National Championships

Stakes were high as with any national championships event, and the event attracted a top quality field featuring 2014 Commonwealth Games athlete Eimear Nicholls. The race took place in and around the grounds of Shanes Castle Estate in Randalstown, County Antrim. Due to water quality, the swim was cut and the race ran as a 2.5km run, 20km bike, 5km run. 

 
Starting with the 2.5km run, which was fast and furious, this allowed athletes to assess the gaps. In the men’s race Alex Gray and Craig Harrison opened up a gap, with defending champion Matthew Kinkaid leading the chase pack into T1. Eimear Nicholls lead the women’s race into T1, with Olivia McCartin and Anne Paul hot on her heels.

 

The athletes then embarked on a two lap course around the castle ground using gravel paths and cutting across fields. The race was ‘draft legal’ but this didn’t stop Mattie Kinkaid catching to the lead pair and subsequently dropping them enter T2 alone with a lead. The pair of Craig Harrison and Alex Gray worked together to minimise losses and entered T2 together. In the women’s race, former Commonwealth games athlete Eimear Nicholls (formerly Eimear Mullan) extended her lead showing she can race off road just as well as on it. Olivia McCartin came in second, and Triathlon Ireland Hall of Fame member, Anne Paul rode home in third.

The woman’s race was to finish in the same order with Eimear Nicholls as the first women to run up to the castle to finish. Olivia McCartin finished second and Anne Paul in third. The drama wasn’t done in the men’s race, the run course consisted of an out and back 5km giving the chasers Alex Gray and Craig Harrison a chance to see the gap to Matthew Kinkaid. Both Harrison and Gray bridged the gap to Kinkaid, with Gray clinching the win and the title of Cross Triathlon National Champion. Craig Harrison came in second and Matthew Kinkaid held on for third.