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Newry Triathlon Club’s Top of the Mourne played host to this year’s Standard Distance National Champs on Sunday, 10th August. The sold-out event promised a challenging course, and it delivered with all three phases proving influential on the day.

Rostrevor welcomed 420 triathletes vying for both Age Group Standard Distance national titles and all important Triathlon National Series points.

White Puts In Convincing Win

Russell White raced the Standard Distance National Championships for the first time since he last won the title in 2022. The Tokyo Olympian led the rest of the field out of the swim by 76 seconds and never looked back. In one of his local domestic races, White built on his swim lead, stayed consistent across the tough course and finished in 2:09:23, just over five minutes ahead of his nearest challenger.

Behind White, the race was on to complete this national champs podium. Sean Carragher and the National Triathlon Centre’s Sean McMahon were second and third out of the water, with Newry TC’s Matthew Kinkaid a further 90 seconds back. A winner at the Base2Race Harbourman standard distance, Kinkaid worked his way up the field and into second entering T2.

Working with an almost six minute deficit out of the swim leg, Strabane’s Adam Ward powered through the bike course for the fastest split of the day to make up time and move up into third.

Onto the forest run and Kinkaid was able to hold off Adam Ward for the first lap but into the second of two laps Ward continued to gain ground and with the fastest run of the day secured himself the second spot of the podium in 2:14:34. Matthew Kinkaid finished third at his home race for 2:15:28.

Putting in a solid performance, junior athlete Sean McMahon crossed the line for fourth.

Speaking after the race; Russell White commented; “I always like racing National Champs. I haven’t raced as much at home as I would have liked over my career so I do like to get National Champs in when I can. I was out with our Mixed Team Relay in Hamburg and that clashed with the draft-legal National Champs so it was good to pick up the standard distance.”

Elliott Claims First National Title

In her first shot at a National Title, Hollie Elliott was coming off the back of a string of solid results at Continental Cup level and most recently lead Team Ireland out on the first leg in the Mixed Team Relay European Championships.

Elliott emerged leading the women’s swim by over a minute, and second overall with the men’s chase pack on her feet. Wicklow’s Emma O’Brien and Tuna TC’s Fiona Murphy were next out; Becky Woods and Aisling Wyer swam together in fourth and fifth with a four minute deficit at this point.

On the undulating bike course, Emma O’Brien worked to close the gap to Hollie Elliott. O’Brien was rewarded with the fastest bike split of the field and the pair were separated by just 10 seconds coming into T2. Becky Woods worked her way into third, Aisling Wyer fourth and Helen Perry fifth at this point.

A hilly 10k trail run lay ahead in the beautiful Kilbroney Park. Looking strong through the early stages, Elliott extended out her lead and held it all the way to the line, putting in a 42:42 split on the challenging course.

Emma O’Brien from Wicklow Triathlon Club was second on the National Championship podium, with Piranha’s Becky Woods in third.

Speaking after the race, Hollie Elliott was thrilled with her win at Top of the Mourne, “It was great…it’s nice to win my first national title.”

Describing the swim, Hollie found the conditions a challenge and then paced the bike course as it was the National Triathlon Centre athlete’s first standard distance of the season. Speaking on the trail run that completed the course; “There’s one turn point on the run so I could see if I was gaining or losing there but it was up a massive hill so I (thought) “anything could happen right now”..my quads were cramping so badly for the whole run so I held a steady pace for the whole thing. It’s actually one of the hardest run courses I’ve done, ever!

“I’m racing French Riviera World Series in three weeks which is slightly terrifying but it’s good experience and I guess I’ve got to step up at some point. It will be very different to today but good experience. Then there’ll be a few World Cups then to finish the season.”

Full results can be found HERE.