Con Doherty and Carolyn Hayes won the 2018 Triathlon Ireland Standard (Olympic) Distance National Championships following victory at the Base2Race Harbourman Triathlon in Wicklow.
The pair came out on top of a field of hundreds of athletes, who raced in the sweltering heat in what was also Round 6 of the 2018 BMW Triathlon National Series.
Temperatures reached 28c during the race, which saw competitors swim 1,500m, bike 40km and run 10km.
And that heat took its toll - with light winds making the run particularly gruelling.
A rolling start to the 1,500m swim allowed athletes to enter the race at their own pace but towards the front of the field there was no holding back as the main contenders ran from the strand inside Wicklow harbour in to perfectly calm waters.
Kieran Jackson took an early lead on the swim but hampered by a wrong turn surrendered first position to teenager Cillian Tierney who bettered his rivals by more than 30 seconds when exiting the water.
Behind him a pack containing Jackson, Aichlinn O’Reilly, James Walton and defending champion Doherty vied for position and entered the first transition within a handful of seconds of one another.
On the bike, Jackson battled his way back to first position but he had close company with Doherty never letting him out of his sight.
Doherty made what is becoming a trademark move coming out of transition two, blasting the first part of the 10km run to gap Jackson who was labouring with a stitch. The winner crossed the line to comfortably retain his national title with a time of 2hrs 5secs.
While Jackson had slowed behind him, he was never under any pressure for silver and crossed the line almost four minutes later.
Eoin Lyons, who ran a superb 36mins 09sec 10km, claimed the bronze medal
The women’s race saw the return of multiple times national champion Carolyn Hayes to top level racing. She took an early lead on the swim that she never looked likely to relinquish as she posted the quickest swim and run splits of the day to finish with a time of 2hrs 15mins 58secs.
Behind her, Amy O’Keeffe swam 23mins 28secs over the 1,500m to move in to second place but later in the race was losing time to Ellen Murphy - the day’s quickest biker with a time of 1hr 10mins 28secs.
Murphy moved in to second place during the 10km run to claim the silver medal at this distance for a second year running with a time of 2hrs 25mins 07secs. It was a close run affair however, with O’Keeffe crossing the line just 1min 07secs later to claim bronze.
