Strong showing by Northwest Triathlon Club at Buncrana Duathlon

The near prefect weather conditions attracted a large crowd of athletes to Buncrana for the 4th annual running of the Buncrana Duathlon on Sunday the 1st of April. The race consisted of a continuous 2 mile run, 10 mile cycle, and another 2 mile run, and was also held as a relay event.

The top five finishers from the recent Northwest Duathlon held in Derry were among those lining up eager for a rematch. Letterkenny AC’s Brian Thursby-Pelham was the first runner home, and out on to the bike course . Springwell AC’s Colin Loughery was next out on the bike, followed by Edward Sweeney and Shaun Mc Fadden.
Aileen Morrison lead the females in from the first run, with nearly a minutes lead already built up from the next female Ann Neary.
Meanwhile, Buncrana brothers Eoin and Darragh Furey were doing battle in the relay section. Eoin beating his brother home to get his cyclist Paddy Mc Callion away first.
Strong bike splits from North West Triathlon Club’s Colm Quigley, Chris Sandy, Paul McCafferty, along with Shaun Mc Fadden and Colin Loughery narrowed the lead on Thursby-Pelham to a few seconds entering the second transition for the second 2 mile run. Colin Loughery produced an excellent second to pass Thursby-Pelham (48:29) and lead the race home in 48:23. Colin Quigley (49:26) was able to hold off Letterkenny AC’s Shaun Mc Fadden to take third place. Paul Mc Cafferty had an excellent race considering he hasn’t run in 4 weeks due to injury to take 4th position from club mate Chris Sandy.

NWTC’s Aileen Morrison continued to extend her lead in the bike leg and second run to take the women’s race in a time of 1 hour. Buncrana’s Ann Neary finished in second with Fiona Tracey in third. Roisin Lynch was 5th woman home.

In the relay race, Four Masters cyclist Martin Mc Devitt produced the fastest bike split of the day, to give Darragh Furey nearly a two minute lead over brother Eoin starting out on the second run. After a comfortable run Darragh lead the relay race home in a time of 47:08. Eoin Furey and cyclist Paddy McCallion took second place, with the pairing of Steven Cutliffe and Kenny Doyle finishing in third.

Jarlath Fearon, Frankie Friel, Patrick Mc Laughlin also finished within the top 10, with Paul Mc Connellogue in 13th position.