Well done to all who participated last evening in the second of the 2009 John Butler sports therapist aquathons. Whatever it is about this year’s series there is always something different for athletes and organisers to contend with. This week there was a much stronger head on the river which made the upstream swim much more difficult, while on land the Dangan Ground’s staff seem to have placed the odd gargantuan mechanically extruded holes along our path while parking the machinery that constructed them at other narrow passes. Nonetheless there was still some good racing especially in the 2008 Handicap race which was integrated with the series race.

In the 2009 men’s race Dermot Lowe showed his powerful running once again as he claimed back over a minute of a deficit on Tony Mc Nicholas after T1 to claim the win. Tony however will be happy to have switched places with Owen Percy this week and push Owen into third.  With Kevin Gow not racing this week, Tony substantially closing the gap between himself and Dermot since the first race, and overtaking Owen, well there’s a lot of interesting racing ahead between these guys as the summer progresses.

In the Ladies race it’s as you were from two weeks ago, Tara Whyte improved her swim time significantly (considering the water conditions) to move even further ahead of the field. Ruth Lynch finished second with Eileen Sweeney, not having had the shelter of the group start in the water, finishing third.

The 2008 Handicap race was won in fine style by Garret Maher. He chased down Eoin O’Sullivan in the water despite setting out over 2 mins behind, and led everyone out of T1. Once Eoin hit dry land however every step was bringing him closer to the leader. In the end the Big Man prevailed and set himself up nicely ahead of his assault on Carna this weekend.

On to next week, the last of the GTC only races before the series opens up to include our neighbours in Predator Tri Club. Thanks to Rory, Ruth, Maria and Andrew for running the race last evening. The ‘2009 John Butler Sports Therapist Aquathon series’ is still open for enteries so if you haven’t joined up yet there is still time. Results attached below

CopyRight Galway Triathlon Club 2006