An Cosantóir

needed in a race. The Naval Service (who also have a triath- and July the 12 Inf Bn in Limerick organise a "Time Trial" cycling series consisting of three separate races over a fixed 15km course. The series crowns an overall DF Time Trial Champion and a race series winner. Shortly thereafter the Air Corps Duathlon Club (again on behalf of the DFTA) organise a "Duathlon Race" series consisting of again three separate races all of which are held in Baldonnel. These races offer a unique chance for all of the DFTA members to race each other in a league event with an overall DF Duathlon Cham- pion and race series winner being crowned each year. The Duathlon consists of a 4km run, 14km bike and a 4km run. The month of August then sees the focus lon club) run two race events for the DFTA committee each year, one of them being an internal event confined to the Naval Service personnel only and the other event is "Open Event" for all members of the Defence Forces. The race distance is a short but fast 400m swim followed by an 11km bike ride and a fast 3km run. For all those that took up the sport over the winter it's a great way of starting out in preparation for the All Army Race in August. For most Defence Forces Triathletes the focus will then turn to compete in the various Triathlon Ireland sanctioned events held all over the country. The favourites being TriAthy, the ever popu- lar TriAthlone and the Dublin City Triathlon to name just a few along with the many other National Series events held around the country. As the season progresses in to May, June sport | 29 Comdt Ronan Dillon (DFTA) presents the overall female winner (above) Pte Gretta O'Connor (27 Inf Bn) and the overall male winner (below) Sgt Paul Connolly (4 Fd Arty Reg) with Comdt Neil Taylor (Sec. DFTA) of the committee gearing up for the De- fence Forces All Army Triathlon which takes place in Lilliput, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. This race is organised in conjunction with the Midlands Triathlon Club who hold the "Caroline Kearney Memorial race" which is held normally on the second Saturday of August each year with the DF event taking place on the same location day prior to the memorial race. The organising committee headed up this year by Comdt Ronan Dil- lon, Capt's Andrew Shinnick, Paul Connolly, Peter Kelleher, Claire Quinn, Neil O'Grady, Lt Gearoid O'Briain, Sgt Johanna Tilley-Rock and Cpl Derek Nugent put in a huge amount of time and effort in getting everything in place for the Defence Forces All Army Tri- athlon. The venue of Lilliput (which is on the shores of Lough Ennell) was truly spectacu- lar this year as the sunshine finally made an appearance and the temperatures on the day were a very warm 26-29degrees some- thing the athletes would have to contend with on the day of the race. www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE

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