The 18th edition of the ISUZU IRONMAN® African Championship is set to take place on March 05, 2023. This early season event offers men's and women's qualifying slots to the VinFast IRONMAN® World Championship in Nice, France on September 10, 2023 (men), and Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i on October 14, 2023 (women). The professional men and women’s field will also be racing for a piece of the $150,000 USD total professional prize.
Once again, the South African event will set the tone for the rest of the season with a strong professional lineup expected to take to the start line in Nelson Mandela Bay. The professional field features Olympic Games gold medalist, Alistair Brownlee, who will be racing the ISUZU IRONMAN African Championship for the first time. However, Brownlee is no stranger to the Nelson Mandela Bay racecourse having raced there in 2018 when he narrowly lost to Jan Frodeno (GER) and picked up a second-place podium finish at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship. The professional men’s field will also feature Leon Chevalier (FRA), Clément Mignon (FRA), Rasmus Svenningsson (SWE) and one of the fastest professional cyclists, Cameron Wurf (AUS). In the absence of defending champion, Kyle Buckingham (RSA), fellow South Africans Bradley Weiss (RSA) and Matt Trautman (RSA) who took second and third places respectively last year will surely be looking for a home win this year.
The women’s field may be smaller but promises to be just as exciting. With the absence of defending champion Daniela Bleymehl (GER), a new champion will be crowned. Laura Philipp (GER) is coming off a memorable season last year which saw her produce an IRONMAN world best time of 8:18:20, winning the 2022 IRONMAN European Championship in Frankfurt, Germany. However, she won’t have it all that easy with Magda Nieuwoudt (RSA) being very familiar with the ISUZU IRONMAN African Championship racecourse and having podiumed at the event last year. The women’s field will also feature the likes of Fenella Langridge (GBR) who will fancy her chances as the course has been kind to British athletes, with both Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) [2018; 2019] and Ruth Astle (GBR) [2001] having won here in recent times. Other athletes to lookout for are Giorgia Priarone (ITA), Jade Roberts (RSA), Penny Slater (AUS) and Laura Zimmermann (GER).
The event returns to the original swim course venue, where athletes will take on a 3.8km swim at Hobie Beach, followed by a 180.2km bike on arguably one of the most spectacular bike courses on the IRONMAN world circuit. The run will take athletes along the beach fronts of Summerstrand and Humewood to Flat Rocks. Athletes will complete a 42.2km run before heading down the magic red carpet to the finish line.
The ISUZU IRONMAN® 70.3® Nelson Mandela Bay will also be taking place on the same day and athletes will take on the same course, however, completing half the distance. This will be an age-group only race and athletes will swim 1.9km’s at Hobie Beach; bike 90.1km’s and run 21.1km’s before finishing on the red carpet at Hobie Beach.
The full professional start list for the 2023 ISUZU IRONMAN African Championship is below:
MALE PRO:
1 Brownlee Alistair GBR
2 Weiss Bradley ZAF
3 Trautman Matt ZAF
4 Chevalier Leon FRA
5 Mignon Clément FRA
6 Svenningsson Rasmus SWE
7 Lyngsø Petersen Mathias DNK
8 Wurf Cameron AND
9 Weiss Michael AUT
10 Salvisberg Andrea CHE
11 Guilloux Arnaud FRA
12 Costes Antony FRA
13 Ferreira João POR
14 Magnien Dylan FRA
15 Schuster Paul GER
16 Bischof Marcel GER
17 Breivold Jon NOR
18 Canhedo Vinicius BRA
19 Csoke Balazs HUN
20 Elosegui Armendariz Eneko ESP
21 Herbst Marcus GER
22 Mattner Christoph GER
23 Pohl Jason CAN
24 De Bruin Gerhard ZAF
FEMALE PRO:
25 Philipp Laura GER
26 Nieuwoudt Magda ZAF
27 Langridge Fenella GBR
28 Priarone Giorgia ITA
29 Roberts Jade ZAF
30 Slater Penny AUS
31 Zimmermann Laura GER
32 Addie Laura GBR
33 de Boer Marlene NLD
34 Konczalla Leonie GER
35 Lehrieder Carolin GER
36 Lubben Janien NLD
37 Mathieux Justine FRA
38 Sawyer Mariella ZAF