Brownlee impressive on debut

Manama : Alistair Brownlee had plenty to celebrate on his birthday weekend and Endurance Elite 13 debut as he topped the podium on his first half distance outing at Challenge Mogan Gran Canaria, Spain. 

The dual Olympic champion emerged from the 1.9-kilometer swim in the lead pack, then steadily built a lead on the multi-lap 90-kilometer bike course. 

He had a clear five-minute lead as he got onto the half-marathon; by the finish tape that lead had ballooned to eight minutes as he logged a new course record in 4 hours 3 minutes and 9 seconds.

“I think I went okay; I didn’t really know what I was doing,” said Brownlee. 

“Obviously I knew how far it was and what the course was, but it was the little things like making sure I had the right nutrition and had my bike sorted. Definitely a few things I can improve on but that’s really why I wanted to get out and do this race first. Iron out those wrinkles in my pre-race setup.”

He will next participate at Ironman 70.3 St. George, another race well known for its hills. Getting to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship is atop his goals list this year. “Obviously to do that I need to qualify and the first step for that is doing the race in St. George.”

After her regional championship win at Ironman South Africa despite a back injury, Daniela Ryf (4:38.35) seemed unstoppable, but the two-time Ironman world champion looked to be shaking off some rust still as she finished third in Gran Canaria and used the event like a training session.

HH Shaikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa finished third in his age group just ahead of his coach Mikel Calahorra.

At Ironman Texas, David Plese finished eighth and just like Ryf, Jan Frodeno used the half distance at the Chia Sardinia Triathlon as a race-specific training day and enjoyed himself with a wire-to-wire win.