The 34th edition of the Ironman Australia Triathlon is over and Eurocoast Triathlon Club members have returned home from Port Macquarie with their heads held high. The gruelling course of a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.2km marathon run was made even harder by 30km/h winds, which particularly affected the bike leg.
Regardless, Daniel Beby again had an amazing race, finishing in 9:22:55, almost 30 minutes quicker than last year. He was faster on each of the individual legs than last year, and was placed 4th in his age group (40-44) and 26th outright. Daniel has again qualified to race in the Ironman World Championship to be held in Kona, Hawaii, the spiritual home of Ironman triathlons.
Gerry Van Weerdenberg, in his first race at this distance, came home in under 12 hours. Gerry has splits of 1:05:55, 6:10:33 and 4:31:21 for the individual disciplines. This place him in the top half of his age group, a very impressive result.
Debbie McCartney had aimed for a finish in under 12 hours, but the conditions on the day did not allow this, with Deb finishing in 12:27:51. This time placed her in the top 25% of her age group, with a slowish swim time cost her time and positions.
Martin Mackay finished in 13:20:12, which placed him in the top 25% of his age group. Marty recorded the fastest swim time in his group by more than seven minutes, but fell back during the bike and run legs.
Peter Cox started with a good swim time (1:09:17), but didn’t manage the windy conditions on the bike leg, and didn’t recover for the run. He managed to finish in a time of 15:08:38, placing him in the bottom quarter of his age group, but to finish in these conditions and still beat hundreds of other athletes was still an impressive achievement.
In the Ironman 70.3 (half Ironman distance) race that started immediately before the Ironman race, Adrian Connor was our stand out finisher. Adrian race in the full distance Ironman race last year, but dropping back to the shorter distance allowed him to finish in a time of 5:58:10, finishing in the top third of the overall field and his age group.
Stephen Phipps returned after a disappointing (to him) race last year, and finished each discipline faster than the previous year. Stephen stopped the clock at 6:32:18, almost 40 minutes quicker than 2018, for a mid field finish.
Julie De Ernsted, in her first Ironman 70.3 race, finished in a time of 6:38:03. Individual splits were 45:46, 3:27:41 and 2:15:03, which gave Julie a mid field finish.
