Kelly’s eye on major games in new Triathlon Ireland role

Natasha Kelly feels a sense of excitement as she gets ready to take on a new position with Triathlon Ireland on Monday-week.

The Glencolmcille woman has been appointed as the federation’s new North West Development Officer and Para Triathlon Project Coach.

A part of her brief will be as the lead coach of Para Triathlon athletes who will compete at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later in the year. The Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024 will roll around swiftly, too - a target firmly in her mind.

“It’s a dream job for me and a natural progression in my career,” Kelly told Donegal Live.

“I have an open book. No-one has been in this role before. It’s just about what I can bring to the table. I’ll be looking at other federations and seeing what they have done. It’s so exciting. I don’t know where it could potentially go. There are a load of progressions and stepping stones.

“I am really excited. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be going to something like the Commonwealth Games as a lead coach.”

A competitor of note herself, Kelly won the Lisburn Duathlon in impressive fashion at the weekend, coming hot on the heels of a win in a similar event in Carlingford with a gold in the Omagh 5k sandwiched in between.

She is currently on the home straight of a Masters in Health Promotion Practice at IT Sligo.

Time is precious, but she already has some goals for her new job.

Kelly will be the lead on all programme delivery throughout the north west and part of Connacht.

She said: “I will be traveling around building partnerships and relationships with schools, promoting the Tri-Heroes and schools programmes, getting the boosts up and running, which is a junior programme and talent ID.

“We don’t have much juvenile participation in the north west so I’ll be looking to expand on that.

“I’ll see where clubs are at and establish what they need in line with the Triathlon Ireland vision. Later in the year, I’ll be scoping out coaches and getting the Tri-Heroes into schools and seeing what we can do there. I’ll be working on boosting the hubs because we need an outlet for the kids and that’s where we need the juvenile sections of clubs to be set up.”

For the last three years, Kelly has been working for Finn Valley Athletics Club as a coach in schools in the Finn Valley area and helping to lead out some of the club’s programmes such as Fastest Feet and Little Athletics.

“The last few years here have been brilliant,” she said.

“I’ve got the hands-on experience. I love juvenile coaching. The kids bring you right down to earth and that’s something I always want to touch base with. I never want to completely move away from that.”

Letterkenny man Michael Black is Triathlon Ireland’s head coach and now Kelly has become the first appointee to the North West Development Officer’s role.

Improving participation numbers in Donegal is of priority. Currently, Letterkenny 24/7 is the county’s only triathlon club.

Kelly said: “There are parts of Donegal that are ideal for a triathlon club.

“We have one triathlon club in the whole of Donegal. We are in training heaven in Donegal. It’s insane that we don’t have more. We have loads of adventure races and so much of this county is untouched.

“I would like to get a junior club set up within Donegal and expand on that.”

Her own journey in athletics and triathlon began by chance around five years ago. A talented basketball player, she tore a cruciate ligament and began jogging as part of her recovery.

“I needed something to do for the summer,” she said.

“Jason Black mentioned I had a really good physique to be a runner. I thought it would be so boring. There was a try-a-tri on and I entered it.

“At that time, I couldn’t swim and didn’t own a bike. I had never really ran either actually.

“Michael gave me a bike two weeks before the event and I sort of self-taught myself how to swim on the day of it. I swam 25 metres and walked the rest. It took off from there.

“It kind of found me and I love it.”