Who is in Nationals?

We already knew there would be at least 4 top athletes missing from the National Championships line up due to the World Relay Championships in Hamburg and James Edgar, who is presumably one of the four on the relay team, is racing the World Championship Series race along with Luke McCarron racing in Canada. We now have a post from The National Triathlon Center confirming Hollie Elliott and Jonathan Oakey racing in Hamburg along with Russell White. Whether White is going as a coach or reserve isn't clear but it would appear that the 2 mens slots will be covered by 3 athletes. Who the second woman is has not been published yet or whether there is a reserve flying out. We can expect something from TI media today. Additionally the field will be missing Luke McCarron who is racing in Canada.

The post also indicates only 2 men and 1 woman from the NTC will be racing in Lanesboro, Sean McMahon and Ryan Lundy in the Junior Men race and Izabella Chidlow in the Junior Women. Interestingly the top 2 juniors in the country, Matthys Bocquet and Senan Mcdonnell, are not mentioned. 

There has been a lot of discussion over the years around obliging supported athletes to compete in the National Championships. I have never been a fan due in part to the complications of writing a coherent and transparent policy document which gave enough leeway to ensure it didn't prevent athletes competing in important development events abroad and particularly important qualification events. However for anyone based in ireland on the day there would not appear to be any reason not to compete. If promoting draft legal racing is a real goal then we need to see more media push in the lead up to events, like we did for a while with the Superseries, and more done to encourage spectators and not just those directly involved to come and support athletes whose names they know.

Also racing this weekend are Donnacha McCarthy and Sean Husband in Canada. 5 on the start for this World Para Cup and the pair will be looking to close the gaps to the top 2 who finished ahead of them in the European Championships recently, Thibaut Rigaudeau and Maxime Gayet and their guides.

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