Kilmore Triathlon Club - Blacksod Point Challenge

The 2009 Erris Beo Blacksod Point Challenge Race Report ....

Just under 200 hardy souls braved a 1.5 km Atlantic sea swim, a 43 km gruelling cycle around Erris and a 10km run over the sand dunes of Falmore as part of the hugely successful second ever Erris Beo Blacksod Triathlon at the weekend.

The clam conditions gave rise to a new swim record of 18mins 32secs, set by Colin Bolger from Pulse Tri Club. Moderate North Westerly allowed James Davenport, the overall winner, to take the lead during the 43km bike. He set a time of 01hr 04mins 4secs leaving the course record of 1hr 03mins 31sec in the hands of last year’s winner Mark Dowling.

The 10km run across the commonage of Falmore was the “toughest course of the year” according to winner James Davenport. In spite of this a new course record of 34 mins 00 sec was set by Relay team Team Hogan’s runner Tom Hogan.

The overall winner of the Triathlon was twenty year old James Davenport from Dublin in a time of 2hrs 03 mins 10 sec. In a titanic race to the line; Davenport had just two seconds to spare over fellow Dubliner Colin Bolger in a time of 02.03.12. Limerick native Colm Turner came home in third with a time of 02.08.11.

The women’s race was won by Galway native Fiona Stephenson in a time of 02.36.11 with Reilly Dibner 02.39.06 in second and Deirdre Lynn from Ballina in third with a time of 02.43.05. The relay team event was won by the ‘Spartans’ with Deirdre O’Mahoney, daughter of Mayo senior football manager John O’Mahoney, Castlebar’s Chris Troy and Ballina native Shane Murphy partaking in one discipline each. There was also success for Ballina’s Gerry Devaney who won the over 50’s race. The fastest local competitor was Edmund Holmes, Kilmore Triathlon Club, who completed the course in 2hrs 53mins 01sec, a new record.

Chairperson of Triathlon Ireland Jag Gunawardana said the event was fast becoming one of the best sporting events in the west. “It was a fantastic success and I want to complement the local Kilmore Triathlon club for organising the entire event. They put so much work into the organising of everything and it surely paid off for them and the community over the weekend,” he said.

Race director and secretary of the Kilmore Triathlon Club Jason Ó Mongáin thanked all the competitors, supporters, race sponsors and the local Rural Social Scheme for the work they done over the last week preparing the race venue, “We got unreal support from the entire community and I want to thank each and everyone that helped in any way over the weekend,” he said.

Anyone interested in finding out more about Kilmore Triathlon Club should email the club at kilmoretri@gmail.com