On the 21st of June there was great excitement
all over Ireland with the opening of the Special Olympics.
There was also great excitement as the CSAC made their
way to Inishbofin for the annual dive holiday on the west
of Ireland island. This year was also the inaugural year
of the Inishbofin challenge. This event, a mini triathlon
had been in planning for months and was scheduled to go
ahead rain or shine at 6pm on Monday 23rd. Diving was planned
as normal but with the second dive to go earlier than normal
in order to allow time for the eager entrants to get organised.
The course was set after much deliberation and numerous
cunning plans. There would be a swim of 500m, a cycle of
4km and a run of 750m.
On the evening of the challenge the excitement was palpable
as teams discussed strategies. Press access to participants
had been restricted over the weekend but a few intrepid
hacks managed to get some team news out. Rumour was rife
of splits and dissention among team members. There was
keen interest into the condition of the individual contestants.
Paddy Powers reported that serious punters were finding
it hard to choose between Paul and Niall Stapleton for
the solo event, with some outside money on Niall Clarke.
International film producer and ship wrecker Ken O Mahony
was on location
to record the event.
The teams were Brendan Murdock, Gordon O`Neill and Catherine
O Malley. Gordon and Brendan had an ongoing argument
about leadership and strategy and why there was a woman
on their
team. Catherine threatened to sue. Neill Bannon`s dream
team included Brian Holland and Michael Schutz. Shane
Tyrrell had a strong outfit with Jamie Hargrave and Siobhan
McGlinchey.
The remaining team consisted of Rhona Mannion, Riandi
Crais and Gerry O Dowd. Referred to as “the girly team”,
they were not amongst the favourites. Gerry had other
plans as we found out later.
The real men who would do the whole race on their own consisted
of the Munster grouping of Niall Stapleton, Paul Walsh
and Mick O`Loughlin with the sole Leinster participant
Niall Clarke.
The conditions at 6pm on Monday evening were perfect with
the sun still high in the sky as the start time approached.
Rhona briefed the group and and after the press interviews
and photos, Louise Nolan the official time keeper with
watch in hand ordered all to the starting point on the
beach. She had her watch and whistle ready and Ken had
the camera focused. A slight delay at the start as Riandi`s
fin straps snapped led to even more tension on the swimmers,
but then suddenly the whistle blew and they were away.
A fast pace was set by Niall Stapleton and even though
sea grass set an unexpected obstacle all swimmers got
through the course in good times. The team entrants were
fastest
away on the bikes while the soloists changed and tried
to get their breath back. Brian Holland was first away
followed by Brendan Murdock representing the mainland
in the Royal colours and soon followed by the pack. Michael
O Loughlin took up the rear of the field as he set off
on Neill`s high tech bike towards the harbour. Brian
was
the first cyclist to arrive at the transfer point for
the runners but all was not as it should have been as
he appeared
to come from the wrong direction, Mick Shutz took off
for the finish and crossed the line first, much to the
delight
of Patsy. However a stewards enquiry found that Brian
had taken a wrong turn and failed to complete the cycling
course
properly and was subsequently disqualified much to the
shame of team captain Neill, who immediately put him
on the transfer list. Gerry O Dowd in full cyclist regalia
had made up a lot of ground to handover to Rhona who
was
away very quickly for the final leg and made it over
the line for the winning team. Paul Walsh was next home
as the first of the soloists closely
followed by Shane Tyrrell, Niall Stapleton, Niall Clarke,
Catherine O`Malley and Michael O`Loughlin.
The winning team completed the course in 21m 45secs and
the winning individual entry did it in 22m 36 secs. These
were tremendous times by all involved and the Inishbofin
challenge was considered to be a great success by all concerned
and will no doubt be a feature on the calendar from now
on.
Prizes were presented after Dinner that evening. The
NDO Kevin O Shaughnessy did the honours. T Shirts specially
designed for the event by Louise Nolan were for sale
before
the event and the profit (€170) made from these now
very sought after items was included in the prize fund
to the individual winner Paul “Iron Man” Walsh
who very kindly donated the money to the RNLI.
The Team Cup was donated by the O Connor family.
And this was only Monday, Neill will tell you about
the diving.
