Loch Ine Triathlon 2008 Race Report

The Lough Ine Olympic distance Triathlon was held for its' 2nd year this year in Baltimore, West Cork. The race itself was a great successa and was hosted by West Cork Tri Club on July 5th.

Following a week of dreadful weather, the skies cleared on the saturday morning and the water was thankfully dead calm in Baltimore Harbour.

The conditions were favourable, and provided all with a very competitive and entertaining event.

The course was a challenging one, as the bike route follows a coastal and rolling route - at places being exposed to sharp winds.
The rolling course continued for 45km and at the 40km mark featured a steep incline, "Lough Ine hill". This climb was about a km long and was guaranteed to take competitors breaths away.

Following the bike leg, the run also began with a steady incline out of Baltimore village taking the high road to Ballymacrown. This featured a stunning view of Baltimore, the Sherkin and Cape Clear Islands which, if the route hadn't already killed you was a great distraction from the pain!

In the Mens event, Paul Hickey of Cork Tri Club came home in 2:18:51 with a comfortable lead, knocking a minute off last year's winning time. This was Pauls second win in the West Cork area, as he had also won the Fastnet Sprint Triathlon in Schull only a few weeks earlier.

Paul exited the water in 20:04 trailed by Mark Nolan in 22:28. Mark pushed hard on the bike
reducing the gap by a minute, and then again on the run reduced the gap by another minute, but was unable to close the gap which had been set by Pauls fast swim.

 Of note, Paul's swim time was second to Amy Wolfe's, last years fastest swimmer and overall female winner.

In the womens, Amy Wolfe (CTC) came home first again in the Ladies event this year in 2:32:52 but was pushed hard by a local girl, Katie Cooke of West Cork Tri Club. This was an impressive performance as Katie is in only her second year of Triathlon.

Amy Wolfe led from the water, exiting in under 19 mins. She was chased by Katie on the bike who knocked nearly 5 minutes off Amy's lead and the two women entered T2 together. Amy had the better transition, being the more experienced triathlete of the two and Katie
followed but was unabe to match Amy's pace on the run.

In the end, the winning margin was only 23 seconds.

First Team home was a pairing of Mike Dullea (WCTC) and Eric Wolfe (CTC), in a time of 2:32:15. A great achievement for Mike Dullea, a keen cyclist who was competing in his first triathlon. Partnered by Eric Wolfe, (brother of Amy) was last year's overall male winner, not competing fully as he is recovering from a groin injury. Nevertheless Eric provided Mike with a fine swim time.

Local competitors from WCTC performed well on the day achieving a first and second in the Team event, 2nd overall ladies, and several category prizes.

Special mention to Katie Cooke and Padraig Podge Hayes first individual athletes home from WCTC.

Also a special mention to the road marshalls and the Civil Defense, without whom the event could not have been held!

For more information on this event or to learn more about the West Cork Tri club, please feel free to visit them at: http://www.westcorktri.com/ or click on the following link!

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