Top Male Pros To Go Head-to-Head This Sunday at Ironman 70.3 Melbourne
A strong field of professional women from across the region are set to line up for IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne in St Kilda this Sunday.
The start list for the first IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne professional race features 22 male professionals, with a mix of IRONMAN 70.3 race winners and newcomers highlighted throughout the field.
Racing will commence on St Kilda beach on Sunday morning, with athletes to take on a 1.9km swim, a 90km ride over two laps along Beach Road, and a 21.1km run along the St Kilda foreshore, before finishing in Catani Gardens.
The top two seeded men are Adelaide’s Steve McKenna and Brisbane’s Nicholas Free, with both athletes tasting success in Australia in recent years.
McKenna heads to Melbourne having finished second at his last three events in Australia, September’s Qatar Airways IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast, February’s IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong and last December’s GWM IRONMAN Western Australia. McKenna also claimed victory at the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong.
“I’m feeling great, I’ve trained more than I ever have with IRONMAN Western Australia preparations and haven’t been this strong or fit in my life,” said McKenna. “Fatigue levels will be a question mark, but with how I’m recovering I’m confident for a great race.
“I love races in St Kilda, the area is beautiful and the space is large enough to create an amazing atmosphere,” he said. “I was very jealous of the Age Group race in March and certainly imagined that a Pro race would be a lot of fun here, it seemed like a local series race on steroids.”
McKenna has spent time between racing overseas and training at home in Adelaide this year, as he builds towards a strong finish to 2022.
“I was away in the USA and Korea racing for around nine weeks earlier this year and then a second trip to Canada for a few weeks in July, but I did skip the third and final overseas race trip I had planned for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship,” he said. “We didn’t have a passport for my daughter with delays in issuing them and I refused to travel without my girls again after too much time overseas solo this year. Training went really well overseas with more time on my hands to recover, but at home the happiness levels are much higher and this easily makes up for the extra training and recovery time. I’ve found results to be better when I’m happy, despite having less time to train.”
Nicholas Free has had great success in the three IRONMAN 70.3 races he’s contested as a professional so far, winning on debut on the Sunshine Coast last year, before a fourth place finish in Geelong in February and most recently a third at IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast in September.
“I’m feeling both tired but happy heading into Melbourne, it’s been a long block of training so I’m relieved to almost be at the end of my mini season but excited I get to race over a new course in Melbourne,” said Free. “The body feels good and is definitely ready to go.
“The competition in Australia is always strong. You have Steve McKenna who has won multiple IRONMAN 70.3 races as well as Charlie Quin fresh off his Noosa Triathlon win two weeks ago,” he said. “Both will make for a tough race but I’m looking forward to it.”
Charlie Quin is set to make his IRONMAN 70.3 debut this weekend and heads into the event off the back of the biggest win in his career, taking out the prestigious Garmin Noosa Triathlon a fortnight ago.
“Winning in Noosa was a dream come true,” said Quin. “It really felt like 10 plus years of training all came together for me to be able to deliver that performance. To be able to have a breakthrough race in Australia’s biggest triathlon was something I will never forget.”
Adding to the pressure of racing some of the top triathletes in the region on Sunday is the fact that Quin has never raced across the 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21.1km run before.
“I’m feeling excited and a little nervous to tackle my first IRONMAN 70.3 race,” he said. “I haven’t competed over this distance so am not 100 percent sure what to expect but training has been going well so I’m excited to see what I can do.
“I’m looking forward to be being able to soak up the atmosphere with the other pros, age groupers and spectators,” said Quin. “I think that is such a unique and special part of IRONMAN racing that I look forward to experiencing.”
IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne – Men’s Professional Field
1 – Steve McKenna – AUS
2 – Nicholas Free – AUS
5 – Mitchell Cunningham – AUS
6 – Mitch Kibby – AUS
7 – Calvin Amos – AUS
8 – Yoann Colin – FRA
9 – Matt De Vroet – NLD
10 – Kurt Fryer – AUS
11 – Brodie Gardner – AUS
12 – Levi Hauwert – AUS
14 – Ben Hill – AUS
15 – Matt Lewis – AUS
16 – Nathaniel Lindsay – AUS
17 – Hamish Longmuir – AUS
18 – Paul Marchant – AUS
19 – Jarrod Osborne – AUS
20 – Sam Osborne – NZL
21 – Charlie Quin – AUS
22 – Jye Spriggs – AUS
23 – Kieran Storch – AUS
24 – Edward Vining – AUS
25 – Fraser Walsh – AUS
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