From the better late than never dept.  Posted on behalf of Mir.

The European Championships took place in Athlone on July 3rd and 4th 2010.

July 3rd held the Sprint Distance Races, which were the Age Groupers, the Junior Female and the Female Elite Athletes. The weather conditions were ideal for this event. In a really well organised event, the Age Group Race consisted of 750m swim up and down stream in the River Shannon, a 20Km cycle out and back circuit and a 5Km run around the town. The Junior and Elite races were different, the transition area was set up along the Army Barracks and the bike and run circuits were located around the town for the ultimate in spectator viewing. It was a great chance for everyone to see how great these Athletes are, you could see the Adrenalin pumping through their veins!

The Junior winners were: Annika Vossing (GER) 1st, Lucy CHITTENDEN (GBR) 2nd, Justine GUERARD (FRA) 3rd, with Laura Casey (IRE) in 31st position.

The Senior winners were: Nicola SPIRIG (SUI) 1st, Carole PEON (FRA) 2nd, Lisa NORDEN (SWE) 3rd, with a really great race from Aileen Morrison (IRE) in 5th, Emma Davis (IRL) in 26th and Kerry Spearing (IRL) in 31st position.

July 4th held the Olympic Distance Races for all Age Group, Junior Male and Elite Male races. The weather conditions in the morning (the Age Group event took place at this time) were not good, rain and wind, not spectator friendly, it cleared up as the day went on. The Age Group race consisted of a 1500m swim, down, up and down the Shannon, the Bike was 40km out and back from town and the run was 10km through the streets of Athlone. The Junior and Elite was the same set up as the Sprint on the Shannon, the Bike was 40km out and back from town and the run was 10km through the streets of Athlone. The Junior and Elite was the same set up as the Sprint only twice the circuits.

In this race, there were 5 Ennis Tri Club Athletes competing in their Age Groups, Maurice McCartan, Oisin McGrath, Paddy Quinn, Alison Rooney and Miriam Byrne.

Their results were as follows:

Moe lost his timing chip in the water so he unfortunately he didn’t get an official position, but we believe his times!

The Junior Male race winners were: Vicente HERNÁNDEZ (ESP) 1st, Andrey BRUKHANKOV (RUS) 2nd, Vyacheslav PIMENOV (RUS) 3rd, Benjamin Shaw (IRL) 23rd and Russell White (IRL) 47th who had a bad fall off the bike but went on to finish in a great position.

The Elite Male race winners were: Alastair Brownlee (GBR) 1st, Javier Gomez (ESP) 2nd, David Hauss (FRA) 3rd, with Bryan Keane (IRL) in 37th and James Lock (IRL) in 51st place.

Both the Junior and Elite Male races were very exciting and were fought hard to be won by all in the competition.

On the same weekend, TriAthlone took place with 6 Ennis Tri Club atheletes taking part. Their results were as follows:

Overall the European Championships was a remarkable weekend for Triathlon racing in Ireland and with TriAthlone it gave everybody a chance to race and be part of this event. The Elite athletes are all Olympic hopefuls, so it was great to see them compete for their countries.

Well done to all of the Ennis Tri Club Athletes who competed in the races!