Four members of Bikram Yoga Athlone recently travelled to Dublin to participate in the second annual Irish Yoga Asana Championship.
Theresa Parker, Eithne MacCarthy, Aisling Hughes, and Conor Kelly are all members of Bikram Athlone. Based in Monksland, the hot yoga studio is run by Tricia Fleming, where competitor Aisling Hughes is also a teacher.
This was the first yoga competition for all four, in total 34 people competed on the day, 28 women and seven men. Aisling was the best placed out of the group, coming 9th out of 28 female participants.
Speaking after last Sunday’s competition teacher Tricia Fleming said that sending a team to the championship was a fantastic achievement for Bikram Yoga Athlone which is just two and a half years old.
“It was a fantastic event,” explained Tricia, “We had great support from everyone in Athlone, there were plenty of well-wishers and a group of supporters even travelled up to Dublin for the championships.”
“What really stood out on the day was the support the Athlone team gave to each other, everyone in Dublin was commenting on the Bikram Yoga Athlone Team and their team spirit,” she added.
Other members of the yoga studio are already expressing interest in the 2015 yoga championships and hope to send a team.
“I know that some people might wonder how there can be such a thing as a competitive yoga, but this is about demonstrating yoga with humility. Competitors are sharing the benefits of yoga through the championships,” she explained.
“Yoga is a personal thing, you really could see that on Sunday. Even though people were competing there was also humility,” Tricia added.
