Local athletes continue to shine at gruelling 'Ironman' challenges

THE continued presence of several Athlone Triathlon Club members at some of the continent's stiffest IRONMAN challenge events has highlighted the impact of the club locally. Last weekend, club member Mick Murphy competed well at the Bolton IRONMAN in Lancashire, England, where he completed the gruelling course in a time of 11:39:12. The course involved a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run, and current Athlone Triathlon Club (TC) chairman, Marc Butler - who himself was one of six locals to complete the recent Roth IRONMAN in Germany - said Murphy should be "very proud" of his achievement. "Mick has been a dedicated runner all his life and is out running coach, so it was very interesting to see how he got on. I think Mick can be very proud of his efforts. He's a tremendous fella' and a great athlete, and we're lucky to have someone of Mick's calibre involved with Athlone Triathlon Club," said Marc. The overall winner of the event in Bolton was England's Daniel Hawksworth in a time of just under nine hours. Murphy, who lives in Kilbeggan and hails originally from Co. Donegal, was competing in the 35-39 years category and finished 182nd overall. Meanwhile, six members of Athlone TC also competed at the Roth IRONMAN in Germany recently (which also doubled as the 2012 European Triathlon Championships). Both Butler and Conor Kelly were completing their third full Triathlon (they did so in times of 10hr 39min and 14hr 05min respectively), while well-known local solicitor, Grainne O'Neill completed her second such race in a time of 14hr 37min. Wayne Reid, who finished second at this year's Connemarathon, was the club's highest-placed finisher in Roth in his first ever triathlon outing (with a time of 10hr 26min). Aileen O'Reilly also did brilliantly in her first triathlon effort, coming in at 11hr 54min, while fellow debutant, and former Buccaneers star, Dave Connellan finished at 13hr 19min. Speaking about club members' continued efforts in big tournaments, Marc said: "It's great to see so many locals giving these events a shot. Every one of our competitors finished in Roth, and obviously Mick done really well in Bolton last weekend." "I can't explain why we do it because the courses are so gruelling, and we're probably a bit mad to keep doing it again and again, but we love it," added Marc.