Our forth athlete is a man who doesn’t swim but is our one Duathlon specialist who is a prolific racer in Europe. After winning age group World and European Gold in 2008 he made the transition to racing Pro in 2010 and has improved every year since…
Name: David Vaughan
Hometown: Malahide, Co. Dublin
Training base: St Albans, UK
Race Team: Shorter Rochford Exclusive Ranges RT
Coach: Dr. J Hewitt (Advisor and testing)
Website/blog: www.davidvaughanduathlon.blogspot.com
Twitter: @du_vaughan
What are your planned events/distances for 2012?
The plan is to do 6 or 7 European Powerman Duathlon world series events (Holland, Fuerteventura, Germany, Belgium, Vlanderen, Switzerland and maybe Italy) plus the ETU and ITU Long Distance Duathlon Champs. Building from 15-60-7.5k to 10-150-30k by the end of the season. Plus to bag a few ‘tin-pot event’ wins along the way too.
What are your goals for 2012 and what are you working on now to make them happen?
Top 10 World ranking, Top 10 at ETU and ITU Champs and at least one podium PM finish. Increasing leg strength and power on the bike is my main focus this winter so I’m doing some real killer sessions. It’s going well and the numbers are up so looking forward to the early season tests. I’m also running county level XC in the UK and a couple of HM’s to keep my run in good order.
Will you race in Ireland this year?
Hopefully… but I say that every year. I’ll miss the nationals as I’m racing in Holland the week after and Spain the week after that. There’s so many Duathlons in Ireland these days so hopefully I can use one of the Phoenix Park races as a sharpener mid-summer as it means a lot to race at home although it always brings me more nerves than racing on the continent.
In recent years the Irish triathlon records have been tumbling. Do you have your eyes set on a new Irish record this year? If so what distance?
I’ve been looking around for an Irish men’s record for Powerman Zofingen. I know Ann Paul has had some great races there but I don’t know where the men’s mark is. I don’t want to assume I set it last year but I definitely want to take about 15 minutes off my course best at the world champs.
What advantage does being Irish give you over your rivals?
As Irish people we have a lot of stubborn fight in us and that always helps in racing. It’s also great to bedazzle the continental lads with my pasty white legs.
Tell us something not a lot of people know about you?
I raced for Ireland twice internationally in sailing during my teens. I even think I raced against Bryan Keane down in Kinsale in a European Champs. Another random fact is that I instigated the setting up of Emerald Racing yet I have never actually met any of the other athletes in person. That’s the power of the internet I suppose! But I’ll try to put that right this year.
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