National Duathlon Series

Triathlon Ireland announced on January 9th the launch of an all new National Duathlon Series.  There are a few great things about this new venture:

• It occurs over a very short six week period – 22nd February to 5th April.
• It is a great way to get some stong run and bike competition experience – particularly for the Half and Ironman participants.
• They are relatively cheap at €20.00 a pop

• There are 8 ordinary races to choose from – but in truth only Skerries (1st March) and  Naas (23rd March) are easily accessible to Dublin
• Ranking is based on your top 2 ordinary races PLUS your points in the National Duathlon Championships in Skerries on 5th April.  You must do the race in Skerries on April 5th to qualify for the Series.
• There are overal and age-group winners (Male and Female) for the Series, as well as for the National Duathlon Championships (just like for triathlon)
• The points system is not ideal – as it is heavily biased towards smaller races.   The person who finishes first gets 1,000 points and 800 points for the National Championships and the ordinary races respectively.  The following 19 places will each score 8% less than the place ahead of them (i.e. 920 and 736 for 2nd place in the National Championships and ordinary races respectively).  All other places (21 and up) will score 4% less than the place before them.  This is demonstrated further in the “Duathlon Points System” tab of the Piranha Duathlon Race Calendar
• There will be independent points systems for Men and Women (i.e. first woman will earn 1,000 or 800 for National Championships and ordinary races respectively)
• The full article from Triathlon Ireland can be found here TI National Duathlon Series Story

So have a look at the calendar,  sign-up for some races and lets conquer this National Duathlon Series!

Bernard Hanratty
National Series Coordinator