Euro Duathlon
European Duathlon Championships Report by Ailbhe Carroll
9 Irish athletes and our team manager Eaomnn Tilley of 3 Rock triathlon club, took off Thursday last for Budapest. There were 5 men and 4 women from all over the country eager to take home some medals.
Arriving into Budapest at 8 o clock in the evening to find out it was still 27 degrees outside was a sure sign of a hot race to come. Friday brought even better news. With a run before breakfast and a nice cycle around the course on Friday in 32 degrees of sunshine we found out there were strong persistent winds around the course but anything that was going to keep us cool, even a strong wind, the Irish were happy about.
The opening ceremony took place on Friday evening with each of the 29 countries lined up beside their country’s flag. When introduced, each team walked the walk through the crowd while a song from each country was played in the background. The atmosphere was buzzing so when the Irish jig came on, some of the team saw it fit to have a bit of a jig while walking through!! This of course created a huge laugh and even got some of the locals dancing with us!
Food was a very important part of our trip. Eamonn saw to it that we ate and ate and ate. A big breakfast around 9.30 and a good hefty size of lunch at 1(having only finished eating breakfast at 11!) and then out to dinner again at 6 where everyone ordered either past or pizza.(stocking up on carbs was essential!) We were advised to drink water until it came out of our ears and although I didn’t quite reach that volume, I was glad I had consumed as much as I had come race day.
Sunday, weather wise was more Irish than what we had experienced the previous few days. It was rather overcast and this, as expected brought smiles to all of our faces. However, this overcast day we had nearly wished for didn’t last very long. The sun broke out half way through the men’s first 10km run and it stayed around all day. Water stations were so important. Any chance we had to cool ourselves down had to be taken advantage of.
The men’s race started before the ladies. With all of our men in the first start, the women cheered on from the side (while sitting in the shade of course!) The lads faired out very well, especially in the run with two of our lads in the second group. The cycle was tough with the strong winds still hanging around. It wasn’t a very technical course but with a couple sharp bends, caution was required.
The women’s race started an hour and a half after the men. With the sun splitting the rocks the buzzer sounded and we were off on our 10km run. With 3 water stations on course, it was nearly an incentive to run faster just so you could use it to cool down! As with the men, the women’s cycle was always wind ridden but that didn’t seem to hinder the Irish. With 3 out of the 4 women winning medals, it was indeed a good day for the Irish. Ailbhe Carroll- gold, Fionnuala Ni Bhradaigh of brey wheelers, silver and Keira-Eva Mooney of Belpark bronze.
Eamonn Tilley, our team manager deserves a mention here as well as he really was absolutely brilliant. He was so helpful and motivating that he really did make all the difference to our races. The little tips he gave us, regarding almost everything were amazing. He had everyone so calm and focused before the race, one would wonder if we were going to be racing at all! Most important thing he said was ‘just to enjoy it. You’ll race far better if you enjoy it.’ He was dead right.
