World Championships and more for Irish Triathletes

Junior World Championships.

Mathys Bocquet races in the junior world Championships triathlon in Hamburg Thursday evening.

Bradley Course is number one on the start list coming in ranked number 97 senior in the world after winning the Oceanic Continental Championships, beating athletes like Taylor Reid, Jake Birtwhistle and Luke William. He also finished 2nd in the recent Senior European Cup in Holten, showing the quality the Bocquet will be up against.

U23 and Junior Relay

Ireland has a team in the U23/Junior relay race. Jonathan Oakey,  Erin McConnell, Ralf Bodamer and Saoirse O’Brien have been selected. While Oakey and McConnell have been racing in Europe consistently It is a first start at this level for both O’Brien and Bodamer with both having impressive domestic seasons so far and Bodamer in particular winning the national standard distance championship while also racing well in the UK. 

Big Para fields in both events

This may be the most competitive weekend of PTVI racing ever held. All 10 top ranked men are racing along with 9 of the top 10 women with large fields at both races.

Chloe Maccombe races in Swansea, coming off a silver in Montreal and moving up to 4th in the rankings. Along with her guide, Catherine Sands, she finished within a minute of Curzillat and Tarantello in the Euro Champs in Madrid. Backing up that result would be a good performance, beating either a real indication of even more progress achieved.

Meanwhile in California, Donnacha McCarthy will have an opportunity to capitalise on the big numbers in Swansea, 7 of the top 10 race there, as he goes into the race ranked number 3 of the 14 starters. Along with his guide, Sean Husband, he had a disappointing day in Montreal last weekend but can bounce back here. In previous races they have showed they have the edge over those ranked below them in this field.

Oliver Gunning races in the US for the second time this year having had a 2nd place in April in Missouri in a continental cup. Podiums are not realistic in this field for the youngest athlete in the race but with his guide, Tom Flaherty, closing the time gaps from last year to his closest competitors and maybe jumping a couple are targets. Clean races and incremental improvements this year are what he needs as he will no doubt be thinking of a return to LA in 2028.

Can McCarron build on progress

Luke McCarron is another racer who came away from his last event with some frustrations. He did show a lot of potential and impressive improvement in his swims. He came out of the water ahead of 4th place finisher, Yanis Seguin of France, in the European Games over 1500m, missing the group that ultimately came into T2 by a small margin. In the Mixed Relay he swam faster than Stornes and only just slower than Fridelance and Varga and he has a chance here over the sprint distance to put himself in a good position on the bike. If he can start the run fresh there is a chance for a big result.

pic by Michael Henry on Unsplash

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