Killarney Triathlon Club fundraises for Kerry Stars Special Olympics

IT was a busy Saturday for all those associated with both the Killarney Triathlon Club, who in conjunction with Coral Leisure Centre, held a fantastic indoor triathlon fundraiser to help raise both funds and awareness for the Kerry Stars Special Olympics Club.

The event ran from 1pm to 4pm and delivered on its promise to deliver excitement and adrenaline as over 50 of the club’s members took on the challenge of swimming, cycling, and running indoors, all in the Coral Leisure Centre (Killarney Sports & Leisure Centre)

Speaking to The Kerryman on Monday after the dust had settled on great day, Chairperson of the Killarney Triathlon Club Oran Kane was delighted with how it all went.

“It was a great day out. There was lots of people there and the big thing of course was that it was for a great cause,” he said, adding that they were thrilled to be able to help out such a great cause such as the Kerry Stars Special Olympics Club.

“For us, Kerry Stars is a cause very close to our hearts. We’ve a lot of members of our club who would have kids in that group. The fact too that they’re a sporting club and we’re a sporting club. Sport is that common theme that we share and it shows that there’s no boundaries in sports. You can be any shape or size or type of person, there’s a sport for everyone,” Oran continued.

The day saw athletes taking part in a 500 metre swim, a 10km bike on an exercise bike as well as a 5km run.

For their part, the Kerry Stars Special Olympics Club had nine teams of three, with athletes, volunteers and family members all participating. They extended a big thank you this week to both Killarney Triathlon Club and all that took part.

While there’s no final figure yet on how much was raised, Oran said that the last count was north of €3,000 raised and this is going to rise even further as counting continues.