Aileen Reid was back to her best with a top 10 finish at the London leg of the World Triathlon Series at the weekend.
The Derry native has been getting better as the season progresses following an interrupted winters training. Today’s 8th place finish is her best result of the season and an encouraging sign ahead of the Commonwealth Games in July.
Reid got off to a flyer over the opening 750 meter swim of the sprint distance race as she exited the water in 9 minutes, just 9 seconds off the swim leader Katie Hursey of the USA. A smooth transition saw her make the leading bike pack of 11 athletes and they worked well to keep their advantage over the chasers.
Onto the 5km run and former track runner Gwen Jorgenson used her pure speed to pull clear over the 2 laps, clocking 16:10 for the distance and winning in an overall time of 54:44. Compatriot Sarah Groff claimed the silver medal in 55:12 with Aussie Emma Jackson 3rd in 55:19.
Reid battled through for 8th place in a time of 55:40, moving her up to 16th in the overall World Series rankings.
Earlier in the day Bryan Keane, Ben Shaw and Conor Murphy were in action in the men’s race. It was Corkman Bryan Keane who finished best of the Irish in 25th place with Ben Shaw 36th and Conor Murphy back in 59th.
With the world’s best on the starting pontoon the pace was hot from with start with swim specialist Richard Varga first from the water in 8:09. Ben Shaw wasn’t far off the front of the race in 20th positing entering T1 after an 8:37 swim. Keane had a bit more work to do as he was just over 20 seconds behind Shaw. Conor Murphy had a rough time in the swim and he came out near the tail of the race facing an uphill challenge from there.
Throughout the 20km bike, a number of the strong bikers pushed the pace in an effort to break up the group but it was not to be as Richard Murray pulled the group together meaning all the main contenders would enter T2 together.
Over the 5 kilometre run Mario Mola turned on the style clocking 14:18 to claim victory ahead of Richard Murray 2 seconds back with Joao Pereira 3rd. Keane put in a fantastic 15:05 run to finish 25th in an overall time of 50:38, less than a minute behind the winner. Ben Shaw came home 36th in a time of 50:53 and Conor Murphy 59th in a time of 53:43.
ENDS
Images & video available FOC at http://media.triathlon.org/ or [email protected]
ITU Race Reports and Results Available Here
