Ironman 70.3 Geelong: High-Quality Men’s Field Prepare For Sunday

The 16 athlete strong men’s professional field includes three former IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong winners, with Steve McKenna, Sam Appleton and Josh Amberger all having stood on the top step of the podium in recent years.

Adelaide’s Steve McKenna claimed his breakthrough IRONMAN 70.3 victory in Geelong last year and is looking forward to returning to action on Sunday.

“I’m probably the fittest I’ve been on all legs but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to win, the race can go any way and with certain people rocking up, like Appleton, the race dynamics can change a lot,” said McKenna. “I’m fitter than last year but it doesn’t mean anything. I think that if I don’t fire on the day I’m still going to go alright in my head so I’m pretty happy with where things are at. You may not fire in the first few races of the season but I know the year is going to be really good so I’m just excited because I’m definitely improving, I haven’t plateaued since learning to swim and bike in 2015.

“Everyone says that I looked angry when I won last year, I took up triathlon in 2015 and to make it happen so quickly, as in getting my Pro licence in 12 months and starting to win Pro races within a few years, it takes a lot of sacrifice and takes a lot of OCD I guess,” he said. “It takes a lot of training, a 180 on the way you were living your life, obviously from the very first moment I thought this is what I’m going to do for a job, that was after my very first triathlon locally in Adelaide, so I’ve been so committed to it that I was kind of angry cause it was a goal achieved. I wanted to hold an IRONMAN tape, not come second, I’d won some other races but IRONMAN was always that dream, it meant so much to me. This year it will be more of a happy thing if I was on the podium, rather than angry.”

Sam Appleton returns home to Australia for first time since IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong in 2020, with the 31-year-old now based out of Colorado in the United States. Appleton finished second in Geelong in 2020, and won the event in 2018, and recently finished ninth at the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in St. George, Utah.

Brisbane’s Josh Amberger knows what it takes to be successful at IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong, winning in 2020 and finishing on the podium at the event every year back to 2016.

“I’ve been preparing for this expecting that all of the guns will show up, there won’t be any surprises with a top-quality field that we expect in Geelong,” said Amberger. “I’ve got to be on my game to expect to be at the pointy end, I’m pretty happy that Sam Appleton is coming back, we race together well there in Geelong and that will be a part of the strategy to just try and execute in a similar way to how we have in the past.

“I’m feeling good physically, feeling quite motivated, obviously it’s the first race of the year and it’s hard to really know where the form’s at or the race shape is at but I guess I’m just as good as any other year that I’ve stepped into the field at Geelong, I’m feeling reasonably confident,” he said. “I’ve been building a good endurance base, it’s a bit of a different season because of the IRONMAN World Championship May edition, I’ll be stepping into an IRONMAN preparation earlier in the year than I have done in the past. Rather than specifically training for Geelong I’ve been chipping away at some base IRONMAN fitness but it usually works pretty well for IRONMAN 70.3 anyway, you just might be missing out on some speed where it counts in a few certain places but the training has been going pretty well and I’m definitely been feeling pretty fit.”

Nicholas Free and Luke Willian both head into IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong off the back of impressive performances in 2021 and will be pushing hard for the win this weekend. Free took victory at IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast, all the more impressive as it was his first ever IRONMAN 70.3 race, and backed it up a few weeks later with a second place at the iconic Noosa Triathlon. Brisbane’s Willian claimed the win at the Noosa Triathlon, finishing just six seconds ahead of Free.

Tim Van Berkel has been one of the country’s top IRONMAN athletes for the last 15 years and is no stranger to the IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong podium, finishing third at the event in 2019 and 2020.

Racing gets underway at 7am on Sunday with athletes taking on a 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21.1km run before crossing the finish line at Steampacket Gardens.

IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong – Male Professional Start List

21 – Steve McKenna – Australia

22 – Sam Appleton – Australia

23 – Josh Amberger – Australia

24 – Nicholas Free – Australia

25 – Luke Willian – Australia

26 – Tim Van Berkel – Australia

27 – Joe Begbie – Australia

28 – Levi Hauwert – Australia

29 – Lachlan Kerin – Australia

30 – Mitchell Kibby – Australia

31 – Adam Rudgley – Australia

32 – Jack Sosinski – Australia

33 – Edward Vining – Australia

34 – Fraser Walsh – Australia

35 – Joel Wooldridge – Australia

36 – Caleb Noble – Australia