Penticton’s Jeff Symonds captured his first Ironman victory in the Asia-Pacific championship in Melbourne, Australia Sunday.
From the moment the gun went off, Symonds said the race was full on until reaching the finish line eight hours, four minutes and 28 seconds later.
Against a field that featured Ironman and world cup champions, Symonds had pure adrenaline pumping through him as he reached the end.
“Winning a race of this magnitude against that kind of field is something that just seems unreal when you are out there,” wrote Symonds in an email. “It didn’t seem real until I grabbed that Canadian flag from my parents with 20 metres to go and did see second place in the finishing chute. Once that happened I was just overcome with thrill of the moment.”
It was a good challenge for Symonds, however.
The Ironman website reported that last year’s winner, Marko Albert (Estonia), led former Olympic rower Todd Skipworth and top- seed Nils Frommhold of Germany out of the 3.8 kilometre swim in a record 45:18 in idyllic conditions in Frankston. Symonds came out of the water in 49:40.
Frommhold and veteran Luke Bell, who lives on the course in Melbourne, dominated the 180-km bike to open up a seemingly insurmountable 11-minute advantage. Bell was first to drop, but Frommhold looked invincible as Australia’s Tim Berkel and Brad Kahlefeldt were joined by Symonds, who completed the bike portion in 4:27.30, in the chase.
The German faded by 30-km on the super-hot, point-to-point, run from Frankston to St Kilda. Symonds and Berkel forced their way to the front and then the Symonds showed his strength to break the young Australian. During the run, Symonds said he grabbed as much water and ice from the stations as possible, but added he loves the heat.
“I want the course to be as hard as possible,” he said. “The bike course was flat and fast which all though there were no hills to climb, there were also no hills to descend and refresh yourself both physically and mentally. The run was a 42-kilometre one way point-to-point run up the coastline of the Port Phillips Bay. It was hot out with temperatures around 30 degrees and we were punching into a headwind the entire run. Being a point-to-point you never got to turn around and have the wind in your back, it was always right in your face.”
Berkel was second, 3:27 behind, with Kahlefeldt impressive in third in his debut.
Symonds was full of praise for his training friends in the Victorian country triathlon stronghold of Bendigo, where he prepared.
“Congratulations to Tim Berkel who is a legend and pushed me to the limit which is why I am wrecked,” Symonds said in a press release. “For all the youngsters watching, I grew up in an Ironman town and I watched and dreamed. So I challenge all youngsters watching here to dream big. Anyone can do this. You just need to go hard.”
Ironman Melbourne is the first of five regional championship races and outside of the Kona, Hawaii world championship, he said it’s as big as they come. With a prize purse of US $30,000 for the winner and qualifying points for Kona, Symonds said it attracted the best of the best.
“Looking at the top five guys you had, myself, the sixth (New Zealand’s Callum Millward) and seventhth (Switzerland) place finishers from the Ironman World Championships in 2014, a Commonwealth Games and multiple-time world cup champion, and a guy with a sub eight-hour Ironman personal best. Not to mention there were seven or eight other guys in the race that had won Ironman or Challenge races or world championships. It was speed and intensity of the other athletes that made the race what it was.”