A competitor in the Ironman event in Youghal has spoken of his terror and trauma amid the chaos of Sunday's tragedy.
Speaking to RTÉ News, the man, who has made official a complaint to both the Ironman organisation and Cork County Council, said that learning that Triathlon Ireland had not sanctioned the sea swim to go ahead was "very traumatising".
Two men, Brendan Wall, 45, and 64-year-old Ivan Chittenden, died during the event.
The competitor had driven down to Youghal last Friday, and was immediately concerned that, "despite intense rain and wind due to the emergence of Storm Betty, the only communication received was an email at 12.06 saying that the swim route would be changed to minimise the impact of swells and currents".
Upon arrival, he recounted that poor information made it "difficult to figure out where to park to go to the registration tent".
This was "incredibly stressful as we checked in and set up our things in gale force winds and rain," he said in his letter of complaint.
On Sunday morning, at "around 7.30am the pro-women and men finally went off, and you could see that the currents and waves were difficult even for them".
'Turn! Turn! Turn!'
He took a position "near the back" as he "had not done this race before" and "saw hundreds of athletes struggle to get into the water, being knocked back by huge waves".
He said: "I got in, battled the initial waves, and started strongly swimming towards the orange buoy. All around me people were struggling to battle the waves and currents.
"They felt huge and it was really difficult to see the buoys over the large waves.
"Already I could see people trying to get the attention of kayakers for help."
He added: "Around 200 metres out from the orange buoy I heard shouts as I turned my head to breathe, so I stopped and looked up to hear the kayakers and all of the swimmers shouting 'Turn! Turn! Turn!' before even reaching the orange buoy.
"The swim route was being changed whilst we were in the water because of how strong the swells and currents were.
"As we were turning the sea became utter chaos as hundreds of people scrambled to get away from the orange buoy and onto this newly changed route.
"People were swimming on top of each other, something I myself experienced, with stronger swimmers pushing weaker ones out of the way. It was aggressive, chaotic, and terrifying."
Swimmers with ear-plugs would not have been able to hear the warnings, he noted.
'People screaming... terrified'
As competitors swam for their lives, they had no way of knowing that two men would lose theirs in the chaos.
The swimmers "ploughed towards the finish, panicked and battered by waves and currents. It was a horrible experience".
"This morning I feel traumatised," he concluded.
Keith O'Sullivan, who also competed in the event, recalled: "The waves were crashing so high they were driving people directly onto rocks. There wasn’t space to be able to allow a wave to break and dive through it."
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said: "The kayakers were struggling to stay upright because the swell was so large.
"The current was pushing everybody down."
Mr O'Sullivan recounted that "there were people screaming that were terrified".
"I felt days in advance it should have been called off because the winds down here on the Friday night were reaching in excess of 105km/h," he said.
"Nobody should really have been in that water," Mr O'Sullivan added.
"That morning I knew we shouldn’t have been going into it. I trained for two years for this moment. I stupidly went for a medal, put myself at risk and terrified my family."
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'I said, it wasn't worth it'
Winnie Moore - in her fifth Ironman event - was pulled from the water after swimming about 200 metres.
"I was very anxious about the swim," she told RTÉ's News at One.
"It took me a good few attempts to get by the waves initially. I decided on the third wave, after being knocked down, to try and get out under it to get out," she recalled.
When she started to panic another swimmer asked if she was alright, before alerting a safety kayak.
"When I looked around, he had gone over to another girl who was very distressed," Ms Moore said. "I decided that I would swim over to him and console her."
She decided that it was not worth it as she "didn’t have to prove anything to myself".
"He called for a small boat to come over and we did a sweep of the area, and we dragged out another four men who were quite distressed."
