National Series 2012

TriWazza

Pedictions Please

Male and Female 2012 National Series Champions?

Male, Female and Mixed Club National Champions?

For my own part I'll stump for

Shane Scully and Aoife Lynch

Pulse, Wicklow and Piranha (bit of a dublin theme here) on the club side of things.

Let the fun begin.

couerdelion

Good thread.

I honestly don't know enough about everyone racing at the top end of the Tri's to make any predictions. But I'll give it a go.

David Richardson from Limerick though looks llike he's progressed over the last couple of years and should be there or there abouts.

Deidre Lynch in the Ladies after last years win.

Clubs:
Mens: Limerick
Womens: Belpark
Mixed: Belpark

In my own little Couerdelion vs my Nemesis battle I'm expecting to come out top!.

Fazz

Too hard to pick winners as no one knows how each are doing.

Duathlon's/runs have hinted a little but not much.

Bjorn planned and raced very well last year it has to be said. Did the top NS points races and did well in them so won by a heathy gap at the end.

Men's favourites:
1 - Bjorn Ludick - defending champion in fairness
2 - Shane Scully - the man's fast
3 - Stephen Early - training hard I hear
4 - Dave Richardson - on upward curve and fast (work cut out if not doing Valentia though imo)
5 - Kevin Keane - assuming injury free - recent fast Ballycotton time suggests doing well.

Missing:
Aodh O'Neill - doing a masters I heard so not sure he's doing NS?
Mike Yelverton - trying to break into British Series I think so presume not 5 NS.

Women's favourites:
1 - Jennifer Duffy - defending champ
2 - Aoife Lynch

Hard to look past these 2 for me.

Club's is anyone's guess.
EG Pulse did poorly last year in Men's due to a couple of top athletes not completing 5 NS criteria - Mark Horan and Joe Lynch.
Mark and Joe would be in as favourites if focussing on 5 NS also.

So it all depends on individual's focus.
Many variables such as races, priorities, timing etc.
Some of the above may not even be gunning for the 5 NS races.

Also bound to be a couple of improver's from lower down breaking into scene...


Is Bambaata in for 5 NS races also...?


Races are main variables/priorities.
- Example Valentia is likely to yield strong NS points for top 3, leader should come away with 125+ so this is almost a must do race if you want to win the NS I'd say.
- Similarly, Dunmore east seems to return big points for a sprint - prob due to hilly run seperating out field combined with strong entry field.
- Athy Olympic gives massive points for the winner, and this may be the case for Athlone this year too.

At a guess, the big 5 this year would be:
- Valentia Sprint
- Dunmore Sprint
- Athy Olympic
- Athlone Olympic
- Dublin City Olympic

So whoever races and is most consistent at the podium end in these gets it imo.

Look at last years female champs, Aoife Lynch was only beaten in Athy I think, maybe one other race but lost the Champs by basically not doing Valentia you could say. It was very very close at the end I think. So tactics play a part and Jennifer Duffy planned her year better in this sense. Also beating Aoife in Athy of course.

TriWazza

Can't disagree with that Fazz. Predictions on Athlone National Standard distance championship this year?

Fazz

TriWazza wrote: »

Can't disagree with that Fazz. Predictions on Athlone National Standard distance championship this year?

Depends if Conor Murphy or Bryan Keane are doing it I guess..

They'd go in as favourites in my books.

I reckon it'll be very tight though with a lot of folk peaking for this.
For us amateurs, I couldn't pick a name as see a good few with opportunity.
I reckon any 1 of 10 or so could deliver so anyone's game.

Women's again depends on entry but reckon Aoife may pip it.

It's a race I can't wait for myself!
Love this course and race having only done 1 sprint there so looking forwars to Olympic.