Dublin City Triathlon Race Report

Sunday, January 14 2007 @ 05:52 PM GMT

Contributed by: eimhin

Better late than never. Patrick Grealy (right, at the Dublin Port Tunnel run) writes in with the following report on Dublin City Triathlon.

The Window Warehouse Dublin City Triathlon took place in late September with many of the 750 athletes registering for the race and checking out the new course on the Friday before the early start on Saturday. The Olympic distance race is for many triathletes, the final triathlon of the year. It was only fitting that the newly designed course was complemented with glorious sunshine throughout the day.

Piranha triathlon Club were responsible for staging the event and the 150 volunteers from the club ensured that all was ready for this race which incorporated the Irish National Championships. As the Athletes prepared to enter the water for the 1st wave of competitors, the race director had some last words of instruction.

A race like this require lots of safety marshals and there were plenty of canoe and sub aqua personnel on hand should any athlete get into difficulty during the swim leg. The race went off in ten waves with 15 minutes between each one and the fastest swimmers first...

First out of the water in 22:04 was Brian Campbell, Irelands 2006 National Sprint Champion followed closely by the Bolger twins and UK PRO athlete Clayton Payne. Christine Johnson was first lady out of the water in 21:01.

The transition was laid out over nearly 500m along the Chapelizod road which was closed one way to traffic. The athletes made their way across the road, out of transition and into the Phoenix park where they faced 5 laps on the bike. Slower swimmers Colm Cassidy, Liam Dunne and Brian Crinion made up good time on the bike with Cassidy putting in the fastest split of 56:28 almost four minutes faster than Campbell, but it wasnt enough to close in the difference.

Campbell, Payne and Cassidy were first out of T2 in that order. There was no catching Campbell who put in a run split of 33:50 to take the title of Irish National Champion 2006, followed in second place by Clayton Payne. Cassidy burned out with over 1km to go and couldn't keep up the pace, letting Liam Dunne pass him out and take 3rd place.

Dunne was looking for any excuse throughout the race to pull out but stayed ahead of clubmate Brian Crinion. In the ladies race the overall winner Nicki Barron was in the second wave, as a slower swimmer, she was 6 minutes slower than Christine Johnson but put in a run of 41:33 to beat Johnson by only 19 seconds, shame they weren't in the same wave! Aoife O Connor had the third fastest time in the ladies racing finishing in 2:21.22 and as the first two ladies were not members of TI Aoife O Connor won the female title of Irish National Champion and received the Caroline Kearney Perpetual Cup. Well done to both Colm Cassidy and Aoife O Connor who raced in Kenmare the previous weekend and still put in fine performances at this weekends race.

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