The tri season kicked off today with the first of the Wheelworx Naas Duathlon Series races. Freezing fog was the order of the day, with visability no more than 30m in places. Despite this, it was the largest turout for the Naas club with almost 150 competitors.
Podium Results
Men
Women
1st
Adam Speers (24/7)
Emer O’Brien
2nd
Michael Black (24/7)
Bronagh ni Bhriain (Piranha)
3rd
Mark Doyle (Belpark)
Eilis Connery (Belpark)
(Full set of results at the bottom of the page)
Fast at the start
Michael Black (24/7) leads the first run through the fog.
but Adam Speers (24/7) & Mark Doyle (Belpark) were not far behind.
Eilis Connery (Belpark) led out the women’s field.
with Donna Mahon and Emer O’Brien close behind.
Mark Doyle (Belpark) was first back from the foggy cycle.
with Adam Speers (24/7) a distance behind.
closely behind Speers was his clubmate Black.
Doyle looked comfortable at the start of the run.
Meanwhile the first two women O’Brien and Ni Bhriain got caught up in a group of men on the cycle.
Connery was some way back as 3rd woman off the bike.
Donna Mahon, who recently ran a 2:53 marathon was a close 4th off the bike in her first ever Duathlon.
In the men’s race Speers passes out a slowing Doyle to take a comfortable win.
With clubmate Black repeating the speed of his first run to overtake Doyle and take 2nd place.
The lack of top end run speed meant Doyle had to settle for 3rd. Last year he was 2nd in the first race only to win the other two races in the series. We’ll see if he repeats this form in 2010.
Emer O’Brien’s run speed took her to a convincing victory.
Bronagh Ni Bhriain looked comfortable in 2nd.
Connery’s run speed wasn’t enough make up for the bke leg deficit, so she had to settle for 3rd.
A more detailed race report from the Race Director; Ed Byrne
Naas Duathlon Race Series
(sponsored by Wheelworx Bike and Tri Shop)
3.5k/20k/3.5k
Despite the foggy conditions 149 competitors turned up to take part in the now traditional ‘season opener’ run by Naas Triathlon Club at Punchestown racecourse in Kildare. This was a very competitive field as it was a qualifier for the World Duathlon Championships in Edinburgh later in the year. At the end of the first run a time of 10.01 gave Michael Black of the ‘24/7 club’ a ten second advantage over Adam Speer also from 24/7, with pre-race favourite Mark Doyle of Belpark only 2 seconds behind him. The bike section is quite challenging with two decent drags each side of Eadestown but this didn’t phase Mark Doyle who put in a 32.30 min bike leg to lead out of T2 with a 32 sec advantage over the hard chasing pair of Speer and Black. In the end it was Adam Speer who was the strongest and managed to hold off Michael Black’s determined challenge to take the win in a time of 56:01, with Mark Doyle finishing close behind in third.
The ladies section was just as competitive with Eilis Connery of Belpark leading the group into T1 in a time of 10:43, followed closely by Donna Mahon Wheelworx, Eimear O’Brien and Bronagh Ni Bhrian from Pirhanna. Unfortunately Eilis and Donna weren’t able to maintain their advantage on the bike and it was Eimear who led into the final run by less than 5 secs from Bronagh. In the end Eimear had judged her race to perfection and was able to stretch her lead to almost a minute from Bronagh with Eilish putting another good run to stay in contact and take third place. Home competitor, Marie Keane of Naas Tri Club, in her first full season in Triathlon came in a very creditable fifth in the Ladies section and could be a real contender in the future.
This race is not all about the elite performers however and the rest of the field were able to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and facilities of Punchestown racecourse. A great days racing for all with plenty more to look forward to as the series continues on 21stFeb and 14th Mar next. Well done to all who took part.
