Shane O’Reilly goes crashing to the ground after being wiped out by a wild stag at the Dublin City Triathlon. But now there’s been an amazing ending to the story (Photo: Erick Scraggs)
Having been given the shock of his life when he was sent flying off his bike after being hit by a wild stag mid-race, Dubliner Shane O’Reilly has had something of a fairytale ending.
Triathlon Ireland, the sport’s governing body, has now selected the 30-year-old for the Irish team in the age group World Championships in Rotterdam next year.
Triathletes normally qualify for the Worlds with their results, but Triathlon Ireland also has the ability to select some athletes and add them to the team of it is felt they would have qualified but for events outside their control.
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And that’s exactly what has happened after the association studied O’Reilly’s crash and his race result from the Dublin City Triathlon on Sunday.
He hit the wild stag very hard while on the bike leg of the event at the weekend. Photos of the incident have been carried by media outlets all over the world.
However, while those images showed O’Reilly crashing hard on his head, he remounted and finished the race, taking 6th in his age group.
He would have qualified for the Worlds in Rotterdam next September had he finished in the top 3 on his category on the day.
But having considered his crash, the fact he continued in the race and just finished short of automatic qualification Triathlon Ireland has added him to the team.
O’Reilly was understandably thrilled with the news.
“All’s well that ends well I suppose,” he said.
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“The accident wasn’t fun but it will be a great story to be able to look back on in 30 or 40 years and say that happened to me.
“And at least I know there will be no wild animals in Rotterdam!”
He said when the race was over and he looked at the times of those ahead of him he was frustrated.
“I ended up finishing 6th in my age group and when I looked at the other times in my age profile, 3rd place was 4mins ahead of me so I probably would have made the automatic qualification if I hadn’t crashed.”
He also said he was amazed at the reaction to the photos of his crash.
“I didn’t sleep well on Sunday night so I went for a walk on Monday morning, I got up at 5:30am and somebody sent me a picture saying ‘I just saw this online’ and I thought, ‘that’s crazy’, it just made it real.
“Then in work I had to go in to a meeting and when I came out I had about 12 missed calls, my phone was just lit up.”
And he said the crash had perhaps had an upside.
“It’s crazy but if there’s a positive, it’s that it shines a light on the sport and the event.
“I can’t say enough about how good the race was, everything was great, the race team after they really made sure I was ok and it’s an incredible sport to have that level of organisation. I can’t praise it enough.”
And what about his injuries?
“My shoulder is quite badly bruised and I had an operation on it previously from a rugby injury so I need to stop swimming and let the swelling go down. It looks like my season is over for now.”
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