24/7 Silverware Success in Athy
Athy county Kildare was the destination for the 24/7 club last weekend, for another leg of the hugely popular national series competition. The weekend promised to be an eventful one with action packed racing, considering the 1600 plus athletes that would be taking part throughout the weekend.
Saturday’s race was the Olympic distance, with Aidan Callaghan, Nick Fowell, Pauric Kelly, Margret Kelly, Hazel Scorer and Paul Doherty taking part and giving a very good account of themselves. With almost perfect conditions athletes took to the river barrow for the swim leg with a 40km bike around the roads of Athy and 10km run along the banks of the river to finish, and indeed the run was tough and energy sapping on the already tiring legs due to the uneven underfoot conditions that cross country running provides. Athletes were given a shot in the arm with the news that F1 star Jenson Button would be competing, and the thought of beating a world champion gave a lot of competitors a little boast come the start of the race.
Margret Kelly continued her early season charge with 2nd in her age group, while Hazel Scorer also managed the same in her age group. Aidan was first home for the club and will be happy in 16th position overall and 5th in his age group on his return from a pretty bad smash on the bike during his last outing in Valentia Island earlier in the month. Nick had another great day with 9th in his age group, a good result considering he hasn’t trained in two weeks with I.T band trouble, Pauric Kelly and Paul Doherty had another ding dong battle with less than 40 seconds separating the pair at the finish line.
After the post race cool down in the river barrow, it was time to stock up on the carbs and dissect each and every aspect of the race. You would think that would be it for the weekend….. But not this crew!!
Sunday saw the sprint event and the 24/7 athletes were joined by fellow members who travelled down on the day including, Mathew Mc Dowell, Gavin Crawford, Pauric Mitchell, Micheal Duffy, Alan Mitchell and Siobhan Gallagher. So come 10 a.m it was back into the river for part two of the weekend, and again several athletes on the day performed well and took some silverware back to the northwest.
In what were more testing conditions than the Saturday, due to the torrents of rain that were falling, making biking that little bit more dangerous, and the run even more draining on already tired and deoxygenated leg muscles, Margret Kelly continued her great start to the weekend with another 2nd in her age group, as did Siobhan Gallagher 1st and Pauric Mitchell 1st in their respective age groups with Gavin Crawford and Pauric Kelly finishing just outside the podium positions in their age groups. Attention is now shifted to Camlough Lake on the outskirts of Newry this Saturday. Here’s hoping we can bring more silverware back across the border.
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