Wicklow Triathlon Club’s Base2Race Triathlon is established as one of the premier standard distance races in the country, and Sunday’s edition saw over 400 triathletes descend on the town to swim, bike and run.
Due to conditions on the morning, the swim was changed to a 1200 metre, two lap, harbour swim. The rolling out and back 40km bike course coupled with a new 10km run course to the north of the town made up the remainder of the standard distance triathlon.
The support on course for local athlete Emma O’Brien was next level on Sunday, with the crowd erupting as she exited the water alongside men’s leader Matthew Kinkaid.
O’Brien’s lead never looked in doubt as she had the fastest in all three splits to take the win in 2:07:35.
Slightly down the pack after the swim, Megan Roberts made up huge ground on the bike course to position herself onto the second spot on the podium and hold it to the finish line.
Belpark’s Hannah Roche had her first Triathlon National Series podium, looking solid in all three phases and holding off club mate Andrea Brennan on the run to claim third on the day.
Matthew Kinkaid was first home in the men’s race and, like Emma O’Brien in the women’s race, his lead was never threatened. The race was on however for the remaining spots on the podium and it all came down to the run.
Coming off the bike, Conor Farrell was in second, with Wicklow’s Scott Graham and Piranha’s Ciaran Kyne entering T2 together. Naas TC’s James Hoare in fourth. Onto the run course and it was all to play for and due to the rolling start, athlete’s would have been unaware of what the real time gaps were.
By the end of the first 4k lap of the run, James Hoare had moved himself into second with Graham and Kyne battling it out for third. With one of the fastest run splits of the day, James Hoare held on to second. Scott Graham moved away from Ciaran Kyne in the later stages of the run and crossed the line in third, with just three seconds separating them in the final times due to slower first and second transitions from Kyne.
Full results can be found HERE.
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