ReidreturnsforTriathlon

As part of the City of Culture celebrations Londonderry’s very own Olympian Aileen Reid has confirmed that she will be competiting in Sunday’s firmus energy City of Culture Sprint Triathlon.

Tommy McCallion, North West Triathlon Club, believes the recent Walled City Marathon and last Saturday’s Kids triathlon continues to highlight everything which is good about the Maiden City.

“Look what has happened in June,” he said.

“We had 300 kids doing a triathlon last week, which was probably the biggest kids triathlon in Ireland, we have 500 doing the triathlon this week and we had over a thousand doing the Walled City Marathon. This has all happened in the space of a month so why can’t June be dedicated to sport and become a legacy of what has been achieved this year?

“The hope is the triathlon now can become an annual event. The city certainly lends itself to a triathlon because of the way it’s set up, and it’s also so picturesque. We’re just really hoping the local bodies buy into it because I know that Triathlon Ireland are also considering making Derry one of the locations for a key event each year.

“We can’t physically take any more than 500. When we started out with this idea we hoped it would be big but we didn’t anticipate such demand. Four or five of us had the idea to have a triathlon as part of the City of Culture celebrations and the fact that now, someone of Aileen Reid’s stature is coming back speaks volumes.”

All the action gets underway from the pontoons beside the Council office at 9.15am.