O"Rourke launches Tri-Week in Athlone
Fianna Fáil TD Mary O"Rourke launched Tri-Week in Athlone on Saturday, a week of festivities taking place in the town ahed of this weekend"s Waterways Ireland TriAthlone. This week will see TriFest taking place throughout the town, which will ensure a huge variety of fun events and activities for all the family. Activities range from arts and crafts fairs, car rallies, street entertainment and concerts to theatre shows and barbeques. This week of fun will all be leading to the main event on Saturday, the Waterways Ireland TriAthlone. This event, which is now in its third year, is Ireland"s biggest triathlon. Along with this, Athlone will be hosting the European Championships in 2010. This year will see over 1,500 people taking part, including Ireland"s first ever Olympic triathlete Emma Davis, who will be racing in her last race before she flies to the Olympics in Beijing. Ireland"s number one male triathlete, Gavin Noble, will also be in action after he narrowly missed out on qualification for Beijing. Liam Heavin, CEO of Triathlone, said: 'This is a great week for Athlone and the midlands in general. There is always such a great buzz in the town with TriFest and the lead up to the main event on Saturday. With a fantastic line up of world class athletes, including our own Emma Davis and Gavin Noble, this will be the best year ever for the race and the line up for TriFest is also great so I hope everyone enjoys what will be a brilliant week.' Some other familiar faces that will be competing include RTÉ presenters Kathryn Thomas, Emma O"Driscoll and Rob Ross. They will be running for their respective charities Respect and Irish Autism Awareness. Newstalk"s Eamon Keane will also be competing for his chosen charity Debra Ireland. Mary O"Rourke"s son Aengus will also be competing on behalf of Snap Printing and he will be hoping to raise funds for the South Westmeath Hospice Foundation. For more information on TriAthlone see www.triathlone.com or for details on the week"s activities in TriFest then log on to www.trifest.net