Posted: June 29, 2004

Triathlon: Triathlon Ireland - One Busy Weekend for Triathlon

From: Wes Murphy, Triathlon Ireland.

This weekend sees one of the busiest weekends in triathlon that Ireland has ever seen.

Our strongest teams have been picked and sent to the upcoming European and World Championships in various distances. Ireland may be one or two medals richer by the end of the weekend hopefully.

Details of said teams are below.

Our own National sprint distance championships will also be held this weekend while our Irish Olympic Distance Championships were held last weekend, results and report are also below.

July 3rd
World Student Triathlon Championships in Palma de Mallorca (1500m Swim, 40km Cycle, 10km Run)

Caroline Kearney
Heather Wilson
Gavin Noble

July 3rd /4th

World Long Distance Triathlon Championships in Sater, Sweden (4km Swim, 120km Cycle, 30km Run)

Elites
Trudy Brown
Richard Brady
Donal Mahon

Age group
Ian McLoughlin

July 3rd

European Age Group Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland (1500m Swim, 40km Cycle, 10km Run)

Anna Frankland
Conor McGowan
Marie Casey Breen
Ken Burns

July 3rd

European Junior Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland (750m Swim, 20km Cycle, 5km Run)

Conor Murphy

July 4th

Irish Sprint Distance Championships in Antrim Marina, Antrim (750m Swim, 20km Cycle, 5km Run)
Contact : Margaret Laffin, email : hi-elbow@tiscali.com
Phone: +44 7790 852677 Start Time : 11.00 am

Results

Sat. June 26th: Irish Triathlon Championships 'Hell of the West' Triathlon, Kilkee, Co. Clare (1500m Swim, 45km Cycle, 10Km Run)

Male
1. Brian Campbell (Hi-Elbow)
2. Bobby Behan
3. Tom Langley (Thames Turbo)

Female
1. Christine Johnson (Team Outrageous)
2. Anna Frankland (Tsunami)
3. Heather Wilson (Hi-Elbow)

Brian Campbell is the 2004 Mens Irish Triathlon Champion. Brian retained his title after a gruelling battle with Bobby Behan. Campbell came out of the water behind a relay swimmer but ahead of Behan. But Behan who also races with Cycleways Cycling Team put in one of the fastest bike splits of approx 1hr10mins to overtake Campbell and was 1 min ahead of him when they headed out on the run. Campbell, who returned from injury this year and has had some great results - winning the Derry (National Series 1) Triathlon in May and coming 6th in the Windsor Intl Triathlon recently, put in a blistering run to catch and pass Behan. Campbell travelled down from Belfast where he is based but races for the Hi-Elbow Triathlon Club.

Christine Johnson is the New Womens Irish Triathlon Champion. She was 2nd in 2003 behind Caroline Kearney (who is racing in the Marseille Grand Prix in France this weekend) but went from bridesmaid to bride this year. Christine from London, is an Irish International Elite. She was the first woman out of the water and had about 2 mins up on Heather Wilson from Hillsborough. Anna Frankland followed another min behind. Christine maintained her lead on the bike and on the run to take her first ever Irish Championship title. The only woman to come close to her was Anna Frankland from Dublin who put in a fantastic bike leg to overtake Heather Wilson and was getting closer on the run but just not close enough.

This has been the biggest triathlon in Ireland in recent years with 325+ athletes taking part. A minutes silence was held just before the start as a mark of respect for Kieron McMahon, a local cyclist who many knew and raced with, who died during the week.

Photos and profiles are available at:

TeamOutrageous.com