“What a night of racing we had at the ul activity centre in killaoe, it came down to the wire!
The weather gods kicked up a bit of surf on the lake waters of loughderg(home of the loughderg monster adventure race) making the swim conditions a bit harder than usual but this didnt dismay the eager aqualete’s from the 2 lap 1500m swim.once the race briefing was made all the athletes were given their handicaps. 2 mins for the weaker swimmers and 1 min for the ladies followed by the sharks of the series.
Chris bryan from the ul high performance swim team was in the lead after the first 750m but he misjudged the course and had to dive back in and swim back around the pontoon and back into contention, this made the race light up as it gave connor rooney of ennis tri and mike yelverton of limerick tri a chance at the overall prize of the hyperactive-sports carbon fibre bike. both super swimmers they put the ground into the rest of the field but fair play to chris bryan for not giving up as he swam himself back into 5th place just behind colin bolger of pulse triathlon club in dublin and young super junior stephen rooney of ennis tri who was having a flyer.
In the womens race laoise griffin of limerick tri and ailbhe carrol of neneagh tri were battling it out for supremacy
On the junior front: the future olympians were locked in a gladitorial battle with the 2 winners from rounds 1 and 2 present this race was the decider, young speedy yelverton and sinead rooney were neck and neck coming out of transition and out onto the run course being chased by clodagh mccann and melanie leonard.
With the dive re-entry on the 2 lap swim course the crowd were treated to some spectacular(and the not so spectacular) re-entry dives mike yelverton and connor rooney were kneck and kneck and couldnt be seperated by the swim, with mike using his racing brain and stayed glued to connor feet throughout it would come down to the run.
Connor was first out of transition with all the crowd cheering frantically for the mike to catch up things were going to come down to run section. the run course for the aquathon is a 3 lap technical course on grass and paths with some energy sapping climbs and a near vertical wall of pain on the backside of the course.
Colin bolger came out of the water in 3rd place follwed closely by stephen rooney and chris bryan. the mathmatics started to come into play. if connor won the race he would win the frame, if mike won, it would be a race off and if chris bryan could run himself into third place he would make the race off!!
Back to the womens race: with the winner from rounds one and two,lynne algar stuck out in a kayak guiding the swimmers safely through the course the nights winner would come from laoise and ailbhe who couldnt be seperated until the final lap of the run were laoise responded to the cries of the crowd and took flight of feet and stormed home to win the ladies event on the night by a clear margin of 23 seconds. lynne had safely rapped up the Footsolutions prize from her previous 2 wins( with her sailfish wetsuit helping her some really quick transitions)
On the night there was an option for some to race a 750m swim and 3.5km run stephen nagle was the winner in this race this young junior from neneagh tri has a great future ahead of him
Series Winners: Mike Yelverton (Limerick Tri) & Lynne Algar (Limerick Tri)
Back to the mens race: mike yelverton stormed home to take the win over connor rooney to make it a race off for the hyperactive-sports.com bike with colin bolger in third place we were all waiting to see where chris bryan would finish to see if he could make it a trio racing for the bike, young suoer junior and irish team member stephen rooney had other ideas and upset his swimming club mate by taking it out on the last lap of the run. chris having put in such a huge effort to regain places after the swim mishap jsut missed out.
Once all the finihisers were home, there was only 2. 2 yong men who had to do it agin,it would come down to a 500m swim and 1.2km run. with both men on the starting blocks the crowd let a big cheer to start them off and there was no seperating them during the swim out of transition and onto the run mike yelverton took control, stamping his authority on the aquaton series and confirming his reputation as a man to be watched in budapest in a few weeks time
Folks it would not be possible to run these events with out the volunteers who came out to marshal and keep all the athletes safe, the sponsors, hyperactive-sports.com, foot solutions limerick, dave niblock from niblock enterprises and sailfish wetsuits, dan cahill from cahills cheese, dave fitzgearld from fitzgearld flowers and of course ul activity centre for all there help.
I look forward to seeing you all again next year for the aquathon series
Train smart: train happy”
Stephan Teeling-Lynch
Results
Full results in a pdf here.
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