Lakeside Triathlon
Saturday saw the inaugural Lakeside Ballyshannon Triathlon take place, which was hosted by Mullaghmore Triathlon club. The sprint distance race was well attended and the warm and perfect races conditions added to atmosphere of the event. A large number of Letterkenny 24/7 athletes made the short journey through the gap to take part in the event.
The race was won by Eoin Mc Manus,, but with only 20 seconds separating the top three athletes it was a tight and well fought out affair throughout. Off the 24/7 athletes, Cranford man Mickey Duffy was home first in 14th place, closely followed by Colin Dean in 19th and Ben George in 21st. Other members who raced well on the day included John Mc Carron, Paul Dillion, Hugo Daly, Jarleth Duffy, Kevinn Hennessey and Sean Mc Auliffe all of whom are in their first full triathlon season and have been making great progress throughout the year.
National Championships
Sunday saw the arrival of the National Olympic Championships in Dublin. The event takes place in and around the Phoniex Park, with the swim taking place in a section of the Liffey at Islandbridge. The race itself had more than 650 competitors from around the country. A group of nine athletes from the Letterkenny club headed down the road early Sunday morning with high hopes of brining home some silverware. Medals winners on the day included, Margret Kelly 1st in AG, Gavin Crawford 2nd in AG and Finn Begley 3rd in AG. The hard work put in over the summer months is paying dividends for these three at the perfect time of the season, with some major events coming up in the next couple weeks. Margret is soon of the Las Vegas to take part in the Half Ironman World Championships, which will be closely followed by the World Traithlon Championships in London, which both Margret and Gavin will be attending along with a number of other club members.
The race itself was 5 laps of the park on the bike and 2 laps of a cross country course on the run. Aidan Callaghan finished just outside the top 10 in 11th place overall Gavin was just over a minute back in 14th. Nick Fowell had an excellent race but was then hit with a time penalty for and infringement on the bike. Paul Doherty had another good day finishing inside the top 100, while Graham Parker continued his comeback to the sport after almost a year out with injury. Pauric Kelly and Damien Mc Goohan put in good performances and will be happy with their progression since competing in the grueling Ironman distance earlier in the year.
Next event for the club will be the Mourne Triathlon in the County Down village of Castlewellen this coming Saturday.