Irish Adventure Racing Championships

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Irish Racing On The Up in County Down

Brian Elliot/Rob / 24.03.2003

Three 4 person and seven 2 person teams lined up for the start of round 2 of the Irish Adventure Racing Championships. Team ‘he North Face’ with some of the country’s top racers, (Keith Byrne, Chris McSweeny, Helen Jackson and Ben Bardsley) were the obvious favourites. Team ‘No Mates’ consisting of Ireland’s top racers were the only team experienced enough to offer them a serious challenge, but the course was designed with multiple stages and choices so the novice teams didn’t have to try and stay with them.

Unfortunately, ‘No Mates’ had a last minute crisis when Lynn Stark was unable to compete after badly twisting her ankle the previous day. They were forced to reform from a four to a two person team (Gary Robertson and Paul Murphy) leaving Noel Hanna out on a limb until Gregory Elliott, the Race Director’s son, offered to join him for his first taste of adventure racing. Together they formed Team ‘Adrenalin Rush’.

Spirits were high at the start in Tollymore Forest Park, set on the edge of the Mourne mountains, and the weather was perfect, with the forecast for more of the same. It was a welcome change from the first race in the series, which had to be abandoned early due to atrocious weather, and a change of luck for Brian (Rain God) Elliot.

Stage One. Start time: 10:30 hrs Saturday March 22nd.
Section 1 - Mountain Biking - 30km
Section 2 - Kayaking - 9km
Section 3 - Mountain Trekking - 22km
Section 4 - Kayaking - 7km
Section 5 - Mountain Biking - 33km
Total Distance - 101km

At 10:30 am the horn was sounded and the teams set off on mountain bikes. Within the first 2 miles a big gap appeared as ‘The North Face’ and ‘Adrenalin Rush’ locked horns and set a blistering pace to establish a lead. Gregory Elliot was having no problems here as he’s a very talented cyclist.

The 30km ride took the teams off-road into Rostrevor Forest Park for some great technical riding and a bit of tricky navigation across the side of Slievmeel Mountain where good route choices would allow 3rd placed team ‘No Mates’ to gain 5 minutes on the two lead teams.

With the rest of the field a good 15 minutes behind a battle was developing in the male pairs between ‘Ajax Warriors’ (Marcus Geoghegan & Brendan O’Brien), ‘Tornado 2’ (Patrick Marshall & Cornelius Marshal), ‘The Three Stooges’ (Eamonn Horgan & Bill Coyle), ‘Ajax Invaders’ (John Casey Eion Kieth) and ‘Sean’s Team’ (Sean Clifford & Tom Curran) The 2 remaining quartets were moving at a more sedate pace with ‘BCBC’ (Ronan Boyle, Steve Cassidy, Helen Cassidy & Brendan Bellew) gaining a 15 minute lead on ‘Team TC’ (Sean McCosker, Laurence McConnell, Sean Doherty & Veronica Gamble). Unfortunately, Veronica Gamble fell from her mountain bike picking up an injury which would cause her team to withdraw at the end of the second kayaking section.See All Event Posts