European Cup Cork

Women's Race

Triathlon Ireland has entered 3 women into the European Cup in Cork this coming weekend, Erin McConnell, Elizabeth Carr and Hollie Elliott.

For McConnell it is her 1st event on the World Triathlon calendar this year having been training in Spain for most of the year. In late 2023 she finished 17th in a European Cup in Ceuta, coming out of the water 2nd behind Elliott, and then competed in 2 World Cups where she again swam well but lacked some power probably on the bike. In Ceuta she lost 1.14 to Elliott on the run so this will be a really good opportunity to see what another winter's work and the move to a training group in Girona has done.

Elizabeth Carr comes into the race after a successful start to the year with 2 continental cup wins, in Africa and Asia, 19th place in the Samarkand World Cup and 14th in Holten European Cup at the end of June. This will have been a targeted event and as the 3rd ranked athlete she will have every right to start with confidence of a high finish. 

Hollie Elliott is in the process of transferring from GB to Ireland and as such will have all her entries handled by Triathlon Ireland while she races under the World Triathlon flag just until November this year hopefully.

She had a really impressive end to 2023 competing in 4 World Cups with placings of 7th, 9th and 2 times 12th. She ended the Olympic Qualifying period in 115th place overall with only 5 counting races from a possible 12. This year she was 21st in one of the French Grand Prix Division 1 events and in 2022 finished 7th overall in the British Superseries. With 6 European Cup Top 10s last year including 2 podiums she will be in contention for a podium place in a race where the favourite will be Sian Rainsley with Angelica Prestia, 4th in Vina del Mar World Cup, perhaps worth an each way bet. 

Mens Race

Russell White started his international race career in Ireland 14 years ago in Athlone at the Junior European Championships. Also racing that day was Bob Haller of Luxembourg and it is safe to say if you wanted to emulate 2 athletes White and Haller would be a very good place to start. I knew they had raced each other a lot but was still surprised that the European Cup in Cork will be the 48th time they have raced each on the World Triathlon circuit. 

The race itself looks to be wide open with Braden Mercer and Hamish Reilly. 3rd and 4th behind Alex Yee in Kitzbuhel recently, probably the favourites in what is likely to come together for a 5k shootout.

Jonathan Oakey comes into the race after a hard Holten European Cup where he finished 30th but also has 3 Top 10s this year in Continental Cups to back up some impressive performances last year. Luke McCarron made a great start to his last race in Poland in June but the TV coverage showed he struggled on the bike. He has shown if he comes off the bike fresh then he can run decent times. Ian Manthey was in the lead group of the division 2 French grand prix race in Bordeaux 2 weekends ago after a great swim but was taken down in a crash. He looks to be in good shape for his first big race in Ireland

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