Galway to be showcased worldwide in IRONMAN 70.3 event

By Martina Nee

After successfully playing host last year, Galway is to welcome for a second time the IRONMAN 70.3 Ireland event which will attract a worldwide audience to showcase everything that the city and county has to offer.

IRONMAN 70.3 Ireland will return to our shores this coming September and organisers have managed to secure a number of major contracts to have this exciting sporting event shown all over the world. The inaugural 2011 event received much praise and attention from global television stations, and contracts from more than 25 channels in every continent in the world have been secured for this year’s event. These include: British Networks Channel 4 and BSKYB, Universal Sports (USA), Canal + (France and Spain), ESPN (worldwide), Sport 1 (Germany), EuroSport (Pan European), Guangdong TV (China), Setanta Sports (World Wide), and Al Jazeera ( worldwide).

Eoin McCormack, of E&R Events Ltd, the official local organisers, said this will give the local and national economy a positive boost. “As well as the €10.1 million that this event brought directly into the economy last year, this allows us a wonderful opportunity to showcase Galway city and Connemara and to promote the spectacular west of Ireland region to millions of potential visitors. Overseas competitors are generally ABC1, successful, goal oriented, type visitors who come with their families, and the gruelling nature of the event means they must stay at least three nights with many more opting to stay in Ireland for their yearly holiday,” he said.

The event will take place over the weekend of August 31 to September 2 with the race itself taking place on Sunday, September 2. The swim course will begin at Blackrock, finishing at Palmer’s Rock. The bike course will mainly take place on the N59 from Galway to Maam Cross, leaving Salthill Park and heading east on the Upper Salthill Road, along St Mary’s Road and Newcastle Road, right on to Distillery Road, and travels under the N6 via NUI Galway joining the N59 via Upper Newcastle Road and continues on the N59 through Moycullen and Oughterard to Maam Cross. The return leg comes back the same way, back to the run course. The run will start in Salthill Park and will head out east along the promenade, past the finish area, and out to Claddagh Quay. It returns via South Park and continues back along the promenade until turning at Blackrock. After three laps runners will enter the finish funnel at the Seapoint car park area in Salthill.

For more information on volunteering or taking part in this year’s IRONMAN, visit www.ironmanireland.com or visit Facebook search IRONMAN Ireland.