Posted: June 24, 2004

Triathlon: Irish Championships Set for this Weekend

The Irish Triathlon Championships takes place this weekend in Kilkee, Co. Clare.

The race is called 'The Hell of the West' due to the fact that it is a longer distance than usual at 1500m swim, 45k cycle, 10k run, plus the swim can in be rough conditions in the Atlantic, the cycle is on tough terrain with a sea breeze on you face most of the way around and 5k of the run is uphill.

This year sees the biggest field ever taking part with 300+ athletes all hitting the water at the 10am Saturday morning.

Irish Triathlon Champion is the title all Irish triathletes aspire to. Brian Campbell, the 2003 Irish Champion will make his way down from Belfast to defend his title. But he won't be allowed keep it without a fight. Bobby Behan who won the Galway Tri on June 12th and Trevor Woods who won the Abbotstown Tri in April and came home from the World Championships with a bronze medal will not be giving him an inch.

In the Female category, 2003 Champion, Caroline Kearney can not make it (see below) so we will have a new Champion this year. the main contenders are Anna Frankland, (26 from Dublin) who won the Derry Tri in May, Heather Wilson (22 from Hillsborough) who won the Galway Tri in June, and Christine Johnson (Essex,UK) who came 2nd last year to Caroline.

The race starts at 10am, Sat. June 26th in Kilkee, Co. Clare. It is being run by Limerick Triathlon Club.

Caroline Kearney
Caroline Kearney, the current Irish female champion will miss out on the opportunity to retain her title this weekend. She is currently in France where she is racing for the 1st Division team Cesson Sevigne. She is racing regularly and getting fantastic results against athletes of a world class standard.
Most of her races are sprint distance, a 750m Swim, 20k Cycle, 5K Run.

May 30th - she won the International Triathlon at Laval
June 6th - she came 4th in the International Sprint race at Les Sables
D'Olonne (The second girl home is the current junior world champ)
June 19th - she came 3rd in the International race at Saint Jean de Monts
June 18th (yes, the day before) - she raced in the Team Time Trial at Saint Jean de Monts, where the team came 8th.
This Sunday, June 27th, she races in the next Grand Prix race at Marseille.

On July 3rd she travels to Mallorca for the World Student Triathlon Championships, where she will be competing with Heather Wilson and Gavin Noble.