As many of you may be aware, some races in the Triathlon Ireland race calendar are labelled “National Series” races. This means, if you are a fully registered Triathlon Ireland member and hold a full race licence, you will receive points when you take part in a national series race.

These points are used to rank individuals at the end of the racing season. What many of us did not realise previously, was that your points also qualify your club in the club rankings. This means, that each persons points are also given to their triathlon club, and their club is ranked in the club championship results at the end of the season.

To fully complete the series, you need to take part in 1 sprint, 1 olympic and any other 2 national series races. If you do not complete 4 national series races, your points are not included in the final results. Last year, many of our members had taken part in 3 national series races, and our club was looking strong in the club championships! However, many people did not make it to a 4th race and there were a lot of points which could not be included in the final results.

Many of our club members do Schull triathlon each year, and very often they also compete in King of the Hill, Kinsale. This immediately means you have 2 races counting towards the series! Just one more olympic, and any other national series race, and it will all count towards our club ranking. (Kilkee is an olympic distance national series race which many club members also seem to do). Of course, everybody has their own interest in attending a race, and people may not wish to travel to races a little bit further away, but if people are planning their race season soon, it might be an idea to consider completing 4 national series races, to give our club a chance of being represented in the club championships!