The King of The Hill triathlon took place in Kinsale on Saturday the27th of July. This popular, but tough, sprint distance race, which is organisedCork Tri Club, has been running in Kinsale for the last 19 years. This yearBlackwater Triathlon Club designated this as one of our club events, where wetry to get as many of our members as possible to take part in a specific localtriathlon. As a result we had nearly thirty members taking part on Saturday,just over one in ten of the 265 athletes who started on the day. After all the recent unseasonableweather, there was a change of conditions on Saturday morning and the daydawned bright and sunny. The race is part of this year’s Tri Munster league andhad a very high quality field competing on the day. The race started with acalm and enjoyable 750m swim at the sheltered Dock Beach in Kinsale. This wasfollowed by an undulating 22km bike ride in pleasant conditions, with only alight headwind on the route out to contend with.  The event finished off with a 5km run out andback over the eponymous hills, the highpoint of which was the 750m downhillsection to the finish line. The first kilometre of the run was up the hill thatthe race is named after and to some of the triathletes it seemed to go onforever. It was especially difficult watching some of the competitors virtuallyskipping up it.  When you get off thefirst hill you go down the other side which is steep and then it kicks in youhave that to look forward to on the way back! There was at least a nice run onthe flat piece for about a km to help people recover a little though, before itwas time to turn around and do it all again in reverse. Back up the steeperside of the hill and then 800 metres downhill to finish line. We had a lot ofreally good performances from BTC athletes on the day, especially amongst ourfemale contingent. Deidre Morrison was first in the 35-39 age group, crossingthe finish line in 1:27:25, just 14 seconds faster than her club compatriotEileen Ryan who was second in the same category in 1:27:39. Niamh Fleming camefirst in the female 50-54 category in 1:45:18 and Ashley Byrne O’Brien camethird in the 30-34 age-group in 1:31:23. Amongst the BTC men, Justin Ryancontinued his recent run of good form, finishing 6^th overall andsecond in his age group in a time of 1:13:32. BTC chairman, Shane Collins, beathis time from last year’s race by over 7 minutes, crossing the finish line in1:17:01, in 16^th place overall. It was also a good day for ourveteran athletes with Donal Murphy, Dave Bartley and Justin McCarthy coming in3^rd, 5^th and 6^th places respectively in the50-54 age-group. Their times were 1:24:59, 1:25:59 and 1:26:32. Brian Baker andMick Beston, both of whom regularly feature highly in the 55-59 age-groupcompetitions, were at it again on Saturday, finishing 2^nd and 3^rdin their category, in times of 1:22:14 and 1:29:44. It was a really good dayfor all of our competitors and there was a moment towards the end of the daywhich perfectly encapsulated the spirit and club ethos of the BlackwaterTriathlon Club. As club member Julian Boeg, who has a prosthetic leg, wasapproaching the finish line, he was cheered across the line by an impromptuguard of honour of club members, much to the delight of the on lookingspectators and other competitors.  Thisis what triathlon is all about. Well done to everybody who took part on the dayand to Cork Tri Club for once again organising an excellent race.