Double success for Westport triathletes

THERE were great celebrations as Westport’s Con Doherty won the Irish men’s Sprint Distance Triathlon National Championships on Saturday morning, with Carolyn Hayes taking the women’s title.
It was a good day all round for Westport, with Ben Walsh winning the 16-19 Junior title and Aichlinn O’Reilly finishing eighth in the National Senior Championships.
Perfect conditions greeted over 600 triathletes for race in Clogherhead, Co Louth, and two men (James Edgar and Chris Mintern) emerged from the 750-metre swim in under nine minutes.
However, the leading pair took a wrong turn early in the bike ride, resulting in a shorter route being taken and ultimately their disqualification from the race. During the second transition, Doherty took all of 23 seconds to rack his bike and don his runners, giving him a jump on the competition. He went on to clock a blistering 14 minutes 18 seconds on the 5k run section to take the win in a time of 54 minutes 50 seconds.
This is Doherty’s first senior title, and he explained afterwards that he intended to have ‘a steady swim’ and emerged from the water ‘with a group of strong cyclists so the workload could be shared’ on the 20k bike leg. He was ‘happy’ to be in fourth place exiting transition one, but ‘a but further down time-wise than I would have liked’ .
A ‘good quality bike group’ of seven riders maintained a high speed with minimum effort, leaving Doherty ‘in a very strong position’ to have a good run. He was ‘very happy’ with his 5k time and ‘was in no way extended’, concluding: “I felt very strong for the first time this year, as I am just returning to full fitness following two bike accidents in the earlier part of the season”.
Meanwhile, Ben Walsh from Westport Triathlon Club finished up his triathlon season by taking his first National Championship Junior title.
A newcomer to triathlon, Ben has had a fantastic year and is ranked number one in the Junior Vodafone National Series. He’s had podium finishes in every triathlon he competed in, being the top Junior overall and winning outright (in all age categories) the Tri Athlone Sprint.
Ben is also a member of Westport Cycling Club, Swimming Club and Athletics Club, which are all instrumental in his success.
He also won silver and bronze medals in the National Youth Cycling Championships this year. Ben is one of many bright young prospects from Westport with a big future.