Opening weekend for Triathlon Ireland Paratri team.

Chloe Maccombe and her sister Judith along with their guides Catherine Sands and Eimear Nichols go into this weekend's Abu Dhabi Para World Cup ranked 2 and 3 in their PTVI race. Chloe looks set to reclaim her Top 5 slot in the Paris rankings while Judith can move up into the Top 9 with a podium. With only 3 scores to count towards Paris and only 100 points difference between winning a World Series and a World Cup event for Para ranking every placing counts. Interestingly Chloe is not down to race the next event in Australia while Judith is, so perhaps an opportunity there to maximise her score as they both look to qualify slots by the end date of July 1st.

Donnacha McCarthy and Sean Husband go into their race ranked 4th of the 8 teams but 3rd of those competing on the Paralympic ranking. They will be looking for a podium to improve their counting scores towards Paris but really want a top 2 to be able to drop any sub 400 point scores later on. With this race and the subsequent World Series race in Australia they have a real shot at moving into the all important Top 9 on Paris rankings.

Tom Williamson was my dark horse to come through for a Paris slot in my end of year summary and he can make a leap into a Top 12 spot with a good result in Abu Dhabi. With only 2 events done in his career he will no doubt have progressed substantially over the winter and I would not be surprised with a Podium or close to it here. He is also on the latest wait list (5th March) for the World Series event in Australia on the 15th at number 5. My biggest concern last year was whether he could secure the entries needed and it will be interesting to see if he makes the trip in the hope of late withdrawals. 

While there are no Irish athletes in the World Triathlon Championship Series race the performances of others could yet impact on qualification scenarios. We will be looking in particular this weekend at the results of Tous Severa and Mansson in the Women's races as they look to secure a place on the Olympic Ranking list and open a potential slot on the World Ranking list for one of the Irish athletes.

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