Grant and Sweeny Take Enduro Titles in Killaloe
The 2026 Enduro National Championships took place over the weekend of 8-9 August 2026 at Ballycuggaran Forest, Killaloe in County Clare. Host club Limerick Mountain Bike Club had been working hard in the previous months putting in an enormous amount of work to delivery 6 great trails. The weather had been good in the lead up to the race with the trails running very fast. Sunday’s predicted shower did arrive at the scheduled time of 3 pm just in time for the podium presentations.
On Friday evening some of the riders were out walking some of the trails. Saturday morning started early with riders on their bikes from around 8 am practicing the stages. Saturday afternoon there was just one timed stage, the Queen stage, which was stage 1. Those in the championship categories raced this stage. There was no set order for this. Darragh Sweeny (Limerick Mountain Biking Club) set the fastest time on this stage.
On Sunday the riders had booked their starting time from 8 am in 5 minute slots up to 9:30. They had to repeat stage 1 and then progress onto the other 5 stages in order. As part of the event there were support categories for challengers and E-bikers. The challengers could race stages 1, 2 and 3 in any order and as many times as they wanted. The E-bikers had to race stage 1 twice, then race stages 2 to 5 before racing stage 6 twice. For all riders there was a lot of climbing up the main forest road. Riders had 5 hours to complete the stages.
Looking at the non-championship categories, the Youth category had 3 stages. Ronan Slavin (Racefit MTB) finished ahead of Marcus O’Neill (Killarney CC). In the Challenger category Ethan Ward (Tralee Bay MBC) took the top step on the podium with Jason Penny (Team Ballyhoura) second and Ruairi O’Connell (Team Ballyhoura) third. Keith McEvoy (Midlands MTB) won the Challenger E-bike race finishing ahead of James Halligan with Rob Lowry (MBCC) completing the podium.
The non-championship Hardtail category was over 6 stages and had 3 riders. Paul Lenihan (Tralee Bay MBC) was the fastest with Daniel Ward (Tralee Bay MBC) second and Peter Guban third. The non-championship E-bike event had 9 stages over the weekend. Jamie O’Callaghan was fastest with Mark McQuaid (Djouce MTB) second and Tomasz Mesjasz (Limerick MBC) third. In the non-championship open race Marc Potts took the overall win after 7 stages. Dylan Goujet-Macleod was second with Paul Caldwell (Team Worc) third.
For the championship categories, the Under 17s event was won by Oran Finlay (Racefit Mtb). Thomas Moylan (Limerick Mountain Biking Club) was second with Daniel Connaughton (IMBRC) third. The M50 category (Supervet) was won by Timo Shinnors (Team Ballyhoura). Stanley Callaghan (Un-Attached Leinster) was second with David Lenehan (Mullaghmeen Mountain Biking Club) third.
The M40s (Vets) race saw Jamie Whelan (GAP MTB) finish less than 30 second ahead of Philip Mullan (Racefit Mtb) with Glyn O’Brien (Un-Attached Ulster) completing the podium. In the M30 category (Masters) Gary Donaldson (Caldwell Powerhouse Racing) stepped into this category for the first time and won it. Kyle Lawson (Hush MTB) was second with Jason Murphy (Killarney Cycling Club) third.
In the Under 21 category host club rider Daniel Slevin took the win. Aaron Meredith (Hush MTB) was second with Logan Reddin (MBCC) third. It was another host club rider who topped the podium in the Women’s category. Blaithin Sweeny was delighted with the win after recovering from injury during the year. Leah Maunsell (Team Ballyhoura) was also back from injury taking second place with seasoned rider Meave Baxter (Cuchulainn CC) taking third.
The Senior race was missing last year’s winner Greg Callaghan who was out with a broken shoulder. Kelan Grant (Gortin MTB) finally got himself to the top step of the podium but Brendan Conroy (Un-Attached Leinster) was less than 7 seconds behind him. Darragh Sweeny from the host club completed the podium.
A huge thanks to the Sweeny family and all at Limerick Mountain Bike Club for all their work in hosting this year’s national championships. The trails were great, the weather helped. Thanks to Maxxis for the podium prizes and the Alex and his crew for the hot food.