Congratulations to Miriam Wall (on right above) and Deirdre Hassett, Athenry AC members, who have been selected to complete for Ireland in their age categories in the "Triathlone 2010, European Championships" to be held in Athlone.

Here's text from the website (http://www.triathlonireland.com/article.php?story=20090630122129531):

Athlone is hosting the 2010 European triathlon championships as part of triAthlone next year. As part of the qualification process for the Irish team, triAthlone 09 is a selection race for the sprint event next year.

The European triathlon championships will take place on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of July 2010. The course of the weekend will see over 5000 athletes from around Ireland and Europe will compete in over 12 different triathlon events. The races are as follows:

* triAthlone Sprint and try a tri (as normal)

* European Junior Elite Men and Women

* European Age Group SPRINT distance championships Men and Women

* European Age Group OLYMPIC/STANDARD distance championships Men and Women

* European Para triathlon STANDARD distance championships Men and Women

* European Team RELAY Championships Men and Women

Athlone and Ireland will be the first ever hosts of both the sprint and standard distance championship events.

Almost 200 qualification slots exist for the Irish team. With 25 people allowed per age group per sex for the host country. If Ireland filled all our slots we could have an Irish team of over 600 athlete’s across all events.

For more details on how to qualify for both the sprint and standard distance events visit the selection section on www.triathlonireland.com.