Leading Male Triathletes Prepare For Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast

Sunday’s race will see 26 male professional triathletes line up on Mooloolaba Beach to take on a 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21.1km run, before the champion is crowned on the Mooloolaba Esplanade finish line.

Last year’s victor Nicholas Free is back to defend his title, with the Brisbane-based athlete winning on his IRONMAN 70.3 debut on the Sunshine Coast in 2021.

“I’m feeling excited and nervous before the weekend. It’s been a while since my last race so it’s hard to know how you will feel on race day,” said Free. “With such a strong start list it will certainly be tough to defend my title but I am definitely looking forward to it.”

Free’s win on debut meant a lot to him, with it the ideal way to announce his arrival on the IRONMAN 70.3 stage.

“It was such an amazing day. It really kick-started a new career for me moving to IRONMAN 70.3 racing,” he said. “I raced on the Sunshine Coast last year not knowing what to expect and now I love the half distance.

“I’m just excited to be racing in front of a home crowd again. Last year, I really didn’t know what to expect and now I feel I have a bit of pressure on my shoulders,” said Free. “I’m looking forward to seeing how I deal with the pressure on race day.”

New Zealand’s Mike Phillips is making the trip across the Tasman for the event, with the 2019 Nutri-Grain IRONMAN New Zealand champion excited about the coming races.

“It’s great to have more certainty around events and travel. Crowds can return and events can run as per normal, which brings the atmosphere back to its former glory,” he said. “It will be great to be able to get in some consistent racing over the next six months. There are plenty of opportunities coming up in the Oceania region over summer.”

Phillips has been battling injury recently and is keen to get back to racing this weekend.

“I have been battling with plantar fasciitis for the last 12 months but have finally got on top of it,” said Phillips. “My training is going well but having not raced in such a long time I am sure it will be a shock to the system.

“After a lot of rain and cold during the Christchurch winter, the ‘Sunshine’ Coast sounded very appealing,” he said. “I’ve raced here back in my ITU days, as well as for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, it’s an awesome course to race on. I hope to be in the mix, but I think either way it will be a good test to see where I am at and help me prepare for all the further events across the summer.”

Adelaide’s Steve McKenna is looking forward to heading north for an event he has highlighted on the calendar each year.

“I’ve been stuck in Adelaide for the winter, so when you go to the Sunny Coast in September, especially from Adelaide, it’s a huge change in weather,” he said. “I think that I enjoy the Sunny Coast really well because of the timing, we come from really cold, rubbish weather and we head over to this absolutely amazing beach location in the warm weather, and it’s kind of like right, summer’s here.

“I feel good, we haven’t been sick in our household for the past five weeks and I’ve trained really consistently so that’s good for me,” said McKenna. “If I train five weeks without really any faults usually I get really fit and that’s actually pretty rare that I can put that much together without racing and resting and recovering. I’ve had a good little consistent period.”

McKenna’s plans for the backend of 2022 have recently changed, meaning his attention will be focused on racing at home.

“I’m actually going to focus on the Australian season after changing plans, I was going to go to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship but my daughter Winnie’s passport still hasn’t come, it’s been about nine and a half weeks now and we’re still waiting,” he said. “So, we’ve cancelled the World Champs trip and now it’s just all about the Australian season, I’m really excited to just focus on this, Melbourne and Busselton, and then Geelong, and then head overseas after that. It’s all about these four races going well now.”

Lining up alongside Free, Phillips and McKenna is a host of Australia’s leading male professional triathletes, all set to fight it out for the top step on the podium on Sunday.

Also set to race on the Sunshine Coast is back-to-back Cairns Airport IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Cairns champion Max Neumann, 2016 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Tim Reed and reigning National Storage IRONMAN Australia winner Tim Van Berkel.