Hell of the West Kilkee

Hell of the West Triathlon took place in Kilkee, Co Clare on Sat morning. Over 450 athletes were signed up to take part in the event which involved a 1500m swim in Kilkee Bay, a one loop 45km cycle and a 10km out and back run.

Conditions were pretty ideal, there was little wind, the bay was calm and the sun stayed hidden behind the clouds adding no extra challenges to an already challenging race.

The day kicked off with a kids event - a number of budding triathletes of all ages took part and their race involved a little splash in the sea followed by a little run. A great introduction to the sport and no doubt in 10 years time the competition amongst 20-25s’s will be a lot tougher.

Back to the big race, there were two starts, with all juniors, male 40+ and all females in the second wave.

Trevor Woods went ahead on the bike and had a good lead on Mark Dempsey(2nd) into the run, Crinion and Dunne were next in off the bikes but Campbell ran hard and was moving fast on the run and claimed third place on the run.
In the ladies Aoife O’Connor, Karen Bothwell, Elena Maslova Mary Daly and Kay Hack all battled hard on the bike. Aoife O’Connor was first out on the run, with Bothwell and Maslova not far behind, but it was O’Connor, Bothwell and Maslova 1,2,3 in the end, with Mary Daly holding onto 4th and Kay Hack got 5th.

The race was very well organised and there was a great atmosphere around the bandstand with great support from all the locals throughout the course.
Well done to Eamonn Horgan and Limerick Tri club and the numerous amount of people who were involved behind the scenes for a very enjoyable and well run event and a great after show party.