A field packed with some of the best young talent from Australia and abroad will battle it out for victory in the men’s professional race at Sunday’s Qatar Airways IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne.
More than 1,800 athletes will head to St Kilda for Qatar Airways IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne on Sunday 10 November, taking on a 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21.1km run, with 27 professional male athletes set to line up.
Nick Thompson is the top seed in the men’s field, with the Perth-based athlete finishing second at the event last year. Since then, Thompson has gone on to finish third at IRONMAN Western Australia, win IRONMAN 70.3 Tasmania and finish second at IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast.
“I really enjoyed the speed of the bike and run course last year and I still got beaten by Hayden (Wilde) by eight minutes, so I think we’ll see some really fast times up and down Beach Road across both professional and age group races,” said Thompson.
Just two weeks ago Thompson lined up at his first VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Hawai’i, where he was one of the youngest in the field, finishing 21st on the biggest stage in the sport.
“The body and mind are just starting to come around, but I still think the pace of the race coming up will be a shock to the system with a lot of people coming straight from an Olympic distance race in Noosa,” said Thompson. “I’m confident I can stay strong until the three-hour mark, but I know it will become a battle against the head and legs in the last 10km of the run.
“Reflecting on what I experienced in Hawai’i, I’m now a bit more confident that I can perform well in big races to come regardless of the dynamic of the race. It also taught me I need to get some more running in the legs but I’m looking forward to working on that over the summer and then testing the progress over an IRONMAN distance next year,” he said.
Sunday’s race marks the next step in Jake Birtwhistle’s career, with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games representative now turning his attention to long course racing full time.
Birtwhistle got his first taste of IRONMAN 70.3 at home in Tasmania last February, where he was victorious on debut.
“That was awesome, it was probably one of the most enjoyable races that I’ve done in a long time. I loved the whole event and obviously being in Tassie was special as well because I had a lot of people there that were able to support me out on the course, but also just the format of the racing I really enjoyed as well, so looking forward to getting a bit more experience in that,” he said.
Birtwhistle narrowly missed out on selection for Australia’s Paris 2024 Olympic triathlon team and while that was incredibly disappointing for him, he’s now excited by the next phase of his career.
“I’ve been racing short course since I was 16 years old, it’s been a massive part of my life for a long time and it was a strange feeling but at the end of the day, I’ve been really wanting to make the change into the middle distance and get involved in that a bit more but I was simply striving for Paris, so that was what was keeping me going in the short course world for that extra year and a half, two years. Maybe I should have made the switch already but for me the pursuit of that was worthwhile,” he said. “I’m really excited be back here and finding the love again for the sport after what was a pretty draining time over the last 12 months.
“I thinking the IRONMAN 70.3 format is going to suit me quite well, I’m excited to go out there and see, I’ve been self-coached the last few months so it will be interesting to see how that goes as well, that’s not the plan going forward but it’s how it worked out. I feel like the training has gone quite well for my limited knowledge of the IRONMAN 70.3 world,” said Birtwhistle.
South Africa’s Jamie Riddle is another athlete out to make his mark on the IRONMAN 70.3 stage, with the Paris 2024 Olympian making his debut at the distance.
Riddle finished fourth at the Garmin Noosa Triathlon last Sunday and is excited for his first taste of IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon racing.
“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a very long time. I got into the sport of triathlon because of IRONMAN, specifically [the World Championship in] Kona,” he said. “I appreciate and value everything the short course scene gave me, but deep down I always believed that these longer, non-draft races would be my bread and butter, so to be able to finally get a crack at it is exciting to say the least.
“There are many things that excite me. First and foremost, the interaction between the pros and age groupers. The gap between the two becomes very minimised, sharing the same course but also sharing the same excitement for the race itself. I also look forward to the ability to utilise my bike power which was always blurred in the draft legal races,” said Riddle.
Riddle is looking forward to the challenge of taking on some of the best professionals on the Australian scene.
“I’m expecting a true battle. I want to make a statement, I want to win, but I know to do so, I will have to go against seasoned long course athletes and extremely strong gents,” he said. “Most importantly, I will need to overcome my own limitations and execute my race to perfection.”
The men’s field for Sunday’s race also features multiple IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 race winners Matt Burton and Tim Van Berkel, IRONMAN 70.3 race winner Nicholas Free and IRONMAN World Championship representative Benjamin Hill.
IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne will see athletes hit the water of Port Phillip Bay for the swim, with the ride taking in two laps of Melbourne’s famous Beach Road, before running a half-marathon along the St Kilda and Elwood waterfront, with the event culminating at the famous IRONMAN 70.3 finish line in Catani Gardens.
The Qatar Airways IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne is supported by the Victorian Government.
For more on the Qatar Airways IROMMAN 70.3 Melbourne visit: https://www.ironman.com/im703-melbourne
QATAR AIRWAYS IRONMAN 70.3 MELBOURNE – PROFESSIONAL MEN’S START LIST
- Nick Thompson – Australia
- Jake Birtwhistle – Australia
- Kurt McDonald – Australia
- Matt Burton – Australia
- Jamie Riddle – South Africa
- Mitch Kibby – Australia
- Caleb Noble – Australia
- Tim Van Berkel – Australia
- Benjamin Hill – Australia
- Matt Kerr – New Zealand
- Calvin Amos – Australia
- Michael Boult – Australia
- Nick Bensley – Australia
- Joe Begbie – Australia
- Samuel Doggett – Australia
- Matthew De Vroet – Netherlands
- Nicholas Free – Australia
- Levi Hauwert – Australia
- Jarrod Osborne – Australia
- Jye Spriggs – Australia
- Matthew Tonge – Australia
- Kyle Tremayne – Australia
- Brodie Talbot – Australia
- Martin Ulloa – Chile
- Edward Vining – Australia
- Fraser Walsh – Australia
- Joel Woodridge – Australia