News

It was windy work for the athletes who took part in the Midland Duathlon in Ardagh on Sunday. They came from all ends of the country from Belfast to Waterford, Dublin to Mayo and a lot of places in between. The first section was a 5km run through the scenic village of Ardagh. Most of these athletes had no time to admire the scenery, with the first runner, Alan Maye from the Midland club storming in at 16:32 followed 20 seconds later by Fergal Duffy. The winning relay team finished their 1st run in 18:26. On this run Pauline Kavanagh was the first senior lady back to transition in 18:59, while Vera Mc Cool was first of the female vets to finish the first run with a time of 19:21. Once out on the bike things started to shape up for the finish, Alan’s brother Colm Maye, who was part of a relay team, passed all other contenders coming back to transition first after 33 minutes. Next was the first individual competitor, Waterford’s David Brazil, who made up great time from being in 6th place after the first run. He was followed by club mate Kevin O’Brien and Hole In The Wall Triathlete Mick Macken. Pauline and Vera had a very close cycle with Pauline finishing just 15 seconds behind Vera on the cycle. Relay competitor Mary Hanly Farrell was not going to let their lead go and had a great run of 11:40 to make the finishing time 1:03:10. She was followed 10 seconds later by the individual winner David Brazil. David put in the fastest time (11:37) on the second run. Kevin O’Brien took 1st vet with a slim lead of 40 seconds from Mick Macken. Alan Maye was 2nd senior man. Pauline passed Vera again to win by 10 seconds. Second lady was Celine Sands of Mayo Tri club in a time of 1:21 and Linsey Brunton of Mullingar took third. Vera McCool took the female vets prize. After a ding dong battle with Pauline Kavanagh and Brendan Kennedy, Midland club member Robert Yorke took the junior prize. All competitors did extremely well given the conditions this year. Special mention has to go to Damien Kennedy who was hooked after acting as timekeeper for this duathlon last year. He made up his mind to train for triathlons/duathlons there and then and finished in a fine 1:33. A big thank you to the Garda Siochana and the Red Cross for helping keep the event safe for all and to Ardagh GAA for making the centre available to us again this year.

The club would also like to thank their sponsors without whom it would not be possible to run the race: Fresh Today, Ballymahon; Midland Trophies, Ballymahon; Lyon’s shop, Ardagh; Fourways Oil, Edgeworthstown; Life Fitness Club (Longford Arms Hotel), Longford; Bank Of Ireland, Ballymahon; C&C/Tayto; The Medical Centre, Kilbeggan; Industrial Truck Training Services, Killare; Lambe Bros Oil Tullamore; Wild Orchard Smoothies; Longford Credit Union ; Mae Sexton T.D ; Corry Auto Engeerning Ltd, Ardagh; Scally’s supermarket Tullamore; Pettit’s pharmacy, Clara; Ravenhill Couriers, Tullamore; Allied Irish Banks, Mullingar; Mother Earth, Tullamore; Kevin Daly, Daingean; Walsh Bros., Cappincur, Tullamore; Lambe Car Sales Tullamore; Texas Department Store, Tullamore; Wrights Pharmacy, Tyrellspass and Tullamore Hardware, Tullamore.