Great Day for the North West at the North West Sprint/Liam Ball Tri

Brian Campbell from Belfast’s Hi-Elbow club had tight competition from Letterkenny’s Ciaran O’Sullivan of the 24/Seven club and the North West’s Colm Quigley.  The three were practically neck and neck on the swim and the bike and in the end it was the run leg that split the men.  Campbell put in a blistering run of 15.39 for the 5km to finish overall winner in 1hour 18 seconds.  O’Sullivan was next over the line in 1hr 3mins 26secs while Quigley finished in 1hr 4mins and 12secs taking the M35-39 age category together with the local male prize.

The women’s race saw Letterkenny’s Sinead Jennings put in a great race with a powerful cycle leg of 33mins 42secs to win in an overall time of 1hr 8mins 9secs.  Trudi Brown of Belfast club, Olympian, was second across the line in 1hr 10mins 22secs while Mary Lavery of Dundalk club, Setanta, came home in 3rd place in 1hr 11mins 3secs.

The NWTC had a great turnout for the race and after Quigley, the next North West man to finish was Paul McConnellogue in a great time of 1hr 5mins 41secs.  This saw Paul take the M40-44 age category and also the local male vet prize.  Gary O’Donnell was next from the club to finish in 1hr 7mins 57secs.  Joe Doherty was next home in 1hr 10mins 42sec.  Jarlath Fearon and James Beattie were close at the line with Fearon clocking 1hr 11mins 44secs while Beattie clocked 1hr 11mins 57secs.  Frank ‘aul hand’ Dunlop was next in on 1hr 12mins 48secs and Paul Merton raced to a 1hr 14mins 17secs finish while Brendan Doherty stopped the clock in 1hr 15min 38secs.  Philip Hasson and Joanne Doran finished half a minute of each other with Hasson home on 1hr 16mins 26secs and Doran in on 1hr 16mins 51secs.  This time saw Joanne take the F20-24 age category and she also picked up the local female prize.  Frank Roche was next in on 1hr 18mins 55secs while Darren Deehan and Sean Doherty had a tight finish with Deehan just piping it on the line in 1hr 19mins 12secs just four seconds ahead of Doherty who clocked 1hr 19mins 16secs.  Seamus Martin finished in 1hr 19.51secs while Brian McCallion and Aoife Logan were fighting for position with only two seconds separating them.  McCallion clocked 1hr 20mins 58secs while Logan clocked 1hr 21mins.  Terry Donnelly and Ronan Toland were the next two club members home, Donnelly in 1hr 23mins 47secs and Toland in 1hr 24mins 5secs.  Gerry McDermott clocked 1hr 24mins 49 while Sean Mullan came home in 1hr 27mins 51secs which saw him take the M-20 age category.  Roisin Lynch and Miriam McFadden were the next two North West women over the line with Lynch finishing in 1hr 29mins 36secs and McFadden in 1hr 29mins 43secs.  Tony Morrison was next in on 1hr 30mins 24secs and in only his third triathlon picked up the Spirit of the Sport award – well done Tony!  Aaron Heaney was next home on 1hr 34mins 16secs while Gavin Molloy came in on 1hr 35mins 27secs.  Pearse Moore, in his first ever triathlon clocked 1hr 42mins 44secs while Darren Armstrong also in his first full triathlon clocked 2hrs 4mins 56secs.  A big thank you as always to Paddy, Karl, Jeff and Gerry for all their help behind the scenes organising and making sure the race runs smoothly.  Meanwhile Aileen Morrison was racing in France this weekend racing at the French Grand Prix.  This series allows French teams to have 2 international triathletes on every team so the standard is high with many of the girls racing in the World Cup series.  The race is over a sprint distance is allows drafting on the bike.  Aileen finished 12th overall with her team coming 4th.  Another great result for Aileen.  She will race back in Ireland next weekend and this is followed by a World Cup Series race in Washington.

Next up for the club is TriAthy in Kildare on 30th May followed by Crooked Lake Sprint Triathlon on the 13th June both of which are National Series races so are expected to be highly competitive affairs.  Some of the club athletes may be in action earlier racing this week at the Furey Series Buncrana 5km.