Australia’s top male professional triathletes will line up alongside the best in the world this weekend at the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship men’s race in Kona, Hawai’i.
Australia will be represented by five men in the more than 50 athlete strong professional start list, who will take on the 3.8km swim, 180km ride and 42.2km run on Saturday 26 October.
Perth’s Matt Burton is the top seeded Australian in the field and heads back to Kona after a successful last year of racing, but a challenging one away from the sport.
Burton was second at last December’s IRONMAN Western Australia, before winning the Cairns Airport IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Cairns in June, but almost had his career derailed in between.
In January, Burton developed an infection in his right foot which led to multiple surgeries, even being told at one stage that he may lose his foot. The 36-year-old overcame those challenges, returned to the top step of the podium and is now lining up at another IRONMAN World Championship this weekend.
“Everyone faces challenges and adversity when you go about testing your limits, though this year has simply been an unscripted approach and focused more on the day at a time feeling,” said Burton. “I’m really happy how my body has been able to respond, and after the effort in Cairns I have been able to push on with greater confidence and belief in myself.
“Two years ago, I DNF’d in Kona and left the island unsure if I had the tools to get back given how competitive the qualification process has become. Qualifying last December was a special moment at home and with the turn of events early this year I was unsure I would be able to honour that qualification, but it really becomes the least of your concerns in those moments,” he said. “It is so great to be in Kona and enjoying all it is and has been for me.”
Cameron Wurf is no stranger to the IRONMAN World Championship, with the 2024 edition the seventh time he has lined up against the best in the world.
“Kona is a massive sporting event, Greg Welch put it on the map for us back in Australia for my generation growing up back in the 90s,” said Wurf. “Obviously a lot of us kids never did triathlon and probably never had any interest in doing a triathlon, but we were just fascinated by him and his attempts to win this race and he finally did in ’93 and ’94 after we followed him get close and then fall back in the placings, so it’s just been an event that I’ve been fascinated by since I was six years old.
“It took almost 30 years before I came here for the first time but because I got so close, being at the front of the race on a few occasions and being in the top five, it’s a race that’s defined my sporting career which has been quite a long one now,” he said. “It means a lot to me to be the best I possibly can and have the best possible race I can have on this course. It’s the event that gets me out of bed in the morning.”
Adelaide’s Steve McKenna is one of two Australian professionals making their IRONMAN World Championship debut at this year’s event, claiming his spot on the start line at the ANZCO Foods IRONMAN New Zealand in March.
McKenna has been a consistent performer at the front end of the field at races in Oceania for a number of years now and is looking forward to challenging himself on the biggest stage in the sport.
“I'm attempting to see it as another race, because I plan to race more World Championships in the coming years. I don't want to build the occasion up so much that I can't perform due to extra pressure I've put on myself,” said McKenna. “So far, I'm having a lot of fun over here and want to keep it that way until the gun goes off. Life is too short to stress constantly, and I don't want a repeat of many race trips in the past where you forget to have fun leading in because you think everything rests on this one race result. It doesn't, and life goes on.
“For now, life is really good whether it goes well or not, so I've taken the stress off and my priority is having fun over here so that I can look back at the entire trip and smile, rather than block out a stressful time and a horribly hard eight-hour race,” he said.
Nick Thompson is the other Australian debutant in Kona, with the 24-year-old booking his trip to the Big Island of Hawai’i at home in Western Australia last December.
Thompson burst onto the scene with a win at IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast in 2023 and since then has been a consistent performer and will be keen to see how he stacks up on the world stage.
“I’m sure we’ll see some big name athletes that have proven their capability at World Championship races stick to their normal plan of making a statement early on, and I’m sure we’ll see some other big name, proven athletes take a slightly more conservative approach and go on to have a really strong second half of the run,” said Thompson. “From a personal expectation, I know my swim can be solid enough that I’ll hopefully be around some experienced athletes to set the pace on the bike. And then I’ll see how long I can stick with them while not doing anything that exceeds my capabilities.”
Sam Appleton is no newcomer to the sport, but Saturday’s race will be just his second IRONMAN World Championship after finishing 36th in 2022. Appleton secured his World Championship slot with his biggest win of his career so far, victory at IRONMAN Australia in May.
“Winning IRONMAN Australia was a career highlight, Port Macquarie is an adopted hometown for me as my mum has lived there for over a decade,” he said. “I had my family and friends up there watching and to win was a great highlight. I had a rough end to 2023, so to come back and win IRONMAN Australia in 2024 was even sweeter.
“I’m so excited to race Kona this year, I feel as though I am in a much better shape physically and mentally than I was in 2022, I’m ready to fire,” said Appleton. “I grew up watching Kona and idolising the likes of Craig Alexander [a three-time IRONMAN World Champion from Australia], and my mum who also competed there in 2012. It’s the pinnacle of our sport and I can't wait to race.”
Viewers in Australia can catch all of the action from the VinFast IRONMAN World Championship live and free via proseries.ironman.com and the IRONMANTri YouTube channel, with the race getting underway at 3:15am AEDT on Sunday 27 October.