Dunmore East Triathlon Race Report 07/07/07

Final Results

Dunmore East, Co. Waterford, was the setting for the 2nd staging of the Dunmore East triathlon on Saturday 07th July 2007.

The course consisted of a 750m swim from the main beach in the village to Councillors Beach on the opposite side of the bay. This was followed by an out and back 20km cycle route in the direction of Waterford City followed by a 6k run that included a steep climb over the first 2km.

The sun shined brightly from early morning on Saturday, a very welcome break from the rain experienced during the week. Competitors came from all corners of Ireland and also from Pembrokeshire in Wales, resulting in a field of nearly 400 athletes in total.

Following a lengthy registration process on Friday night and Saturday morning, the race briefing was held in the transition area overhead of Councillors beach and this was followed by a walk down the hill by all competitors to the starting line on the main beach.

It was close to 11am when the race got underway. All males from 20 – 39 were in the first wave and all females, juniors, vets and relay teams were in the second wave.

Pre race favourites in the male race were Brian Crinion and Mark Dempsey while Ellie Jones from Pembrokeshire was the favourite (as well as the defending champion) in the female race. It was difficult to predict the winner of the relay event but after much deliberation, it was decided that the aptly named ‘We’re only here for the Guinness’ should go off as the short priced favourite!

Donal Harte from the Pulse Tri club was the first out of the water after the first wave only to discover that he was disqualified as he had only gone around two of the three buoys on the swim course. He continued with the race however. Meanwhile, Dempsey and Crinion were living up to their pre race favouritsm and were first out on the road with Crinion getting the better of the tussle on the bike and building up a 2 minute advantage before returning to transition.

Ellie Jones from Pembrokeshire led the ladies onto the road but she was overtaken by the Belpark duo of Barbara O’Hanrahan and Deirdre O’Toole on the bike course.

Meanwhile further down the field, the ongoing battle between sparring partners Derek McCabe, Niall Heffernan and Liam Dillon was in full swing following their battle in the Waterford Duathlon two months previously. McCabe eventually got the better of this tussle with a very consistent overall performance. Enjoy it Derek!

However, with 2km to go at the head of affairs in the run, Crinion’s lead was being eaten into by Dempsey and Ellie Jones had battled her way back into contention by overtaking the Belpark pair of O’Hanrahan and O’Toole. At this point both Crinion and Jones got the scent of victory and sprinted up the hill into Dunmore East over the last kilometer to take top honours. Dempsey came in 2nd in the male race with Owen Dwyer 3rd. The Belpark duo of O’Hanrahan and O’Toole finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the female race.

The evergreen Waterford man, Tom Casey, put in a storming run to win the male vets title with Niamh Richardson winning the female equivalent.

Dave Williams and Gary Swenarton were 2nd and 3rd in the male vets race.  Karen Corcoran from Pembrokeshire was 2nd and Val Brown 3rd  in the female vets race.

There were also a few Juniors taking part, aged 16-19yrs.  Brendan Lyons had a brilliant race to have the 10th fastest swim overall and managed to beat most people in the race to finish 7th overall.  Oral Timmons was the first female junior home.

First team home on the day was Team Comeragh Cyclists, a team that had no triathlon experience before but has lots of cycling experience.  It was made up of Mark Nugent doing the swim, Keith Gater on the bike and David Grace doing the run.  They had a great race to finish in 1:17:23 with nearly 4 minutes to spare over ‘We’re only here for the Guinness’ from Pembrokeshire. One feels however that the welsh trio were sparing themselves for their fourth discipline, i.e. the post race results and the Guinness!!!

The post race results and celebrations took place in the Ocean Hotel and in the Strand Inn where everybody had a fantastic time.

Special thanks to the Gardai, the Coastguard, Comeragh Cycling club, Carrick Triathlon Club, Waterford A/C, family, friends and all our own members who gave up a chance to race to marshal instead. Without these it would not have been possible to have such a great and safe race.

 

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(c) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO WATERFORD TRIATHLON CLUB - LAST UPDATED ON 15 FEB @ 21:00 GMT