Write a commentGerry Patton is really looking forward to competing in the firmus energy Newry City Triathlon on Sunday week 31st of August.
He says last year a few people finished ahead of him who he feels shouldn’t have done; thus he’s hell-bent on making amends.
Gerry says the city course is a super flat one and perfect for racing triathlon. He says it’s ideal for both novices and experienced athletes.
Patton, married to Anita and with children Tom, Toni and Jude, is known to many as The General. He is without doubt Bessbrook’s most famous sporting icon and he has earned that moniker with sterling deeds (and perhaps some not so sterling) down through the years. In his time Gerry has competed in many, many sports, including football where he was a legendary figure and of course triathlon - as well as playing darts, pool, GAA for Carrickcruppen, badminton for the Bosco, squash and being involved in dog-racing.
Currently running, swimming and cycling are sports in which he excels but even last year, in the middle of the triathlon season, he turned out for Bessbrook United in the Carnbane League at the ripe old age of sixty. He also played against Newry Celtic in the Mother’s Pride cup final at the age of 47 - and had a stormer at centre half.
The General participated in the first Newry Triathlon, organised by Pauline Lamph of the Newry and Mourne District Council, way back in 1983 but thereafter concentrated on football – that is until Catherine Murphy began her series of Crooked Lake triathlons. And indeed Gerry is one of a select few who has finished all 11 races to date; and he has the T-shirt to prove it.
Although in the first Crooked Lake race things didn’t go as planned with both his legs seizing solid as he was cycling through Meigh. Mount Everest conqueror Banjo Bannon passed him and advised him not to get off the bike as he might not be able to get back on it. Thus Patton cycled the last five miles using his heels to turn the pedals.
On the other hand Gerry said one of the highlights of his triathlon career was beating both Mickey Mallon and Tony Bagnall in the tenth year of the Crooked Lake (2013) “It was a great memory for me,” said the General.
Other great memories including finishing half-ironman races in Weisbaden, Germany and Zurich in Switzerland. Also he won his age category in the Top of the Mourne Triathlon a couple of years ago.
A bad moment in football occurred when the then Bessbrook Wanderers’ manager Jamsie Feehan told him that he was over the hill – at a mere 35. Sure at that tender age Gerry was just starting out on his sporting career.
Meanwhile a few years ago Paddy Duffy presented Patton with the Bessbrook Hero Duathlon award and incidentally at that same awards ceremony, the late Ossie Bradley, who tragically drowned in Bessbrook pond a few weeks ago, also received an award.
In conclusion Gerry says: “I might not be the best swimmer, cyclist or runner in the Newry Triathlon Club but there’s no one can touch me in the fourth event - socialising.”
So on Sunday, August 31 if you’re competing in the Firmus Energy Newry City Triathlon and Patton doesn’t pass you in the swim, on the bike or on the run, he’s bound to get you in the last discipline!
