Niall crowned Adventure Racing champ

ROUND Towers member Niall Corless was recently crowned the 2025 Adventure Ireland Racing Champion after finishing up the series with a gruelling race in Mayo towards the end of last year.

The sport of adventure racing sees athletes take part in a long distance race, usually between 50-80km particularly at the elite levels.

The race will see them transition to various forums of racing such as running, biking or even kayaking.

Organisational body Adventure Racing Ireland identifies its champion by examining eight races that are held around the country. The athlete’s best five scores are taken with the winner being crowned the series champion.

Niall was first introduced to racing in 2020 while still playing football and hurling for Towers and it wasn’t long before he found himself hooked on the sport.

“I did my first race and it was like something clicked with me. I just started doing more races but I didn’t even know about the series to be honest. I just thought it was a one and done type of thing, you book it, enjoy it and that was it. Someone told me eventually there was a series. I think I came fourth or fifth in the series one year without even knowing that there was one!”

“Every year I sign up for it now, even without the competitive aspect of it, it allows you to go see different counties and places and get a different perspective of places that you might not normally get to see.”

Niall entered his first race in 2020 but it wasn’t until 2023 that he really began to kick into gear.

2024 was the year where Niall aimed to finish inside the top 10 of every race and also where he would pick up his first podium, finishing third at the event held in Lough Derg.

2025 was finally when he felt like he had a real opportunity of not only being able to finish all of the races well, but be competitive for some of the top spots in the overall series.

“I like challenging myself. There’s something mentally there just me as a person where I like to challenge myself. It’s just how I am. Training is a hefty schedule and there’s a lot of thanks I owe to my wife Felicity and even the kids to allow me to train as much as I do in order to be competitive.”

Niall also drew upon the talents of Simon Breslin of The Flow Team in his preparation for the Series this year.

Based in Clondalkin, The Flow Team offers coaching towards general well being and focuses on techniques such as breathwork and meditation in order to offer both improved mental and physical performance.

Using these techniques as well as an intense physical training regiment of his own was what allowed Niall to achieve what he did in 2025.

It would be a second place finish at the Sea to Summit race held in Westport last November that saw him being crowned the overall series champion.

The race itself was split into a 4km run, an 8km cycle, a 7km run up Croagh Patrick, a 35km cycle through the hills and finally another 4km run to finish off a total of 56 km covered.

Niall has big plans for 2026 however and is aiming to undergo a 225km distance in April and likely will go on to defend his series championship over the course of the year.