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Triathlete collides with deer at Dublin City Triathlon

Credit: Erik Scraggs
Credit: Erik Scraggs

An age-grouper’s race was made a little more difficult on Sunday when he collided with a deer on the bike leg of his Olympic distance triathlon.

The triathlete, Shane O’Reilly, was 30 km into the bike when a deer attempted to jump over him and surrounding athletes to get to grass on the other side of the road. O’Reilly said after the race that his helmet was the only thing saving him from a bad injury.

“Apart from that, my shoulder was a bit sore and I had a headache,” he added.

The 30-year-old carried on in the race and finished in a respectable 2:25 despite the incident.

Dublin City Triathlon takes place in a park that is home to around 500 deer. Photographer Erik Scraggs who captured the event says he never expected the deer “to try and leap over cyclists” when he saw them out near the course.

“I had a feeling they might make their way across the cyclists’ path, so I tracked them though my lens,” he said.

“I never envisaged that they would actually try and leap over the cyclists. It all happened so fast, It was a really heavy crash.

“It was a relief to see the competitor get back to his feet and continue.”

Sources say the deer recovered after the incident.