Triathlon Ireland Duathlon Championships

The winners were quite predictable from the start list with Niall Cornyn and Saoirse O’Brien topping the overall timing sheets while Mathys Bocquet and Zoe Hughes were the top Juniors. O’Brien was the only one under any pressure finishing just a few seconds clear of Anie Kinsella and Megan Roberts.

Men overall

Cornyn was well clear after the first run while Bruton got left behind a bit at the start and ultimately came into T1 53 seconds down on Cornyn and 8 behind Bocquet. It is usually easy to tell who has the most recent international draft legal experience from the transition time and Bocquet with 22 seconds showed this clear of Cornyn at 29 and Bruton at 41. 

Bruton showed what might have been with the fastest second run. Without knowing where his training is or plans for Sunday's race it looks like he had the outright pace to stay close to Cornyn on the first run and didn't lose too much on the bike. Could he have made it interesting? Unlikely with his transitions but certainly could have had silver. To be fair to Bocquet he was riding a road bike while Bruton and Cornyn were on TT bike with disc rear wheels. 

Good to see Cornyn back at the front of races after some illness and injury. Can he now get back to the level of a few years ago when he competed at some of the international draft legal duathlons?

Junior Men

Looking forward Bocquets runs were probably below where you would like to see, Cornyn is a really good marker going back a number of years with regard to previous international athletes, but his bike looked really good. Along with Daragh Reynolds he appears to have been the only Junior National or Horizon Squad athletes and Reynolds was a solid second place junior losing about a minute on each of run, bike and run. Third junior was Evan Tosh who was 30 seconds back from Reynolds. Looking forward to seeing how they are swimming as the season progresses.

Junior Women

Mollie Jackson was the only Horizon Squad athlete in the junior women's race finishing second to Zoe Hughes who is surprisingly not named on the Triathlon Ireland website as a National Squad athlete despite her previous selection for European Youth Championships last year and a number of good performances, possibly an error or personal decision. Hughes was easily the fastest junior and the fastest runner on the day finishing 4th overall. 3rd junior was Isabella Chidlow who has also completed internationally.

Women Overall

The tightest race was undoubtedly for the overall in the women's race. Only 8 seconds covered the top 3 and allowing for winner Saoirse O’Brien perhaps controlling the second run a bit from the front transition had a major impact on the race. O’Brien spent a total of 33 seconds in T2 compared to 40 for second overall Aine Kinsella and 45 for third place Megan Roberts. It would be interesting to look at Kinsella and Roberts in particular to see if they wore the same shoes on both runs or had a second pair ready in T2. Looking at the Gallery all the medalists in senior and junior races had the same colour shoes on both runs and it is unlikely all had 2 pairs the same colour for the race. Sometimes the really simple things can make all the difference.

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