Silver for Charles-Barclay in Kona

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Lucy Charles-Barclay secures third successive IRONMAN World Championship silver whilst Joe Skipper and Corinne Abraham also finish within the top-ten at Kona, Hawaii.

Ten British athletes travelled to Kona, Hawaii to compete in a 140.6-mile race against some of the world’s best endurance triathletes.

Lucy Charles-Barclay took the World Championship silver medal for the third consecutive year, being granted automatic qualification to the 2020 World Championships and taking home $60,000 in prize money.

Charles-Barclay led a commanding race, competing from the front for most of the contest, she recorded the fastest swim (00:49:02) and maintained a quick pace to complete the cycle in 04:47:20.

Entering the second transition in first place, the competition began to gain on Charles-Barclay, and she was passed by both Sarah Crowley (AUS) and the race winner Anne Haug (DEU). Not to miss out on reclaiming silver, Charles-Barclay dug deep to overtake Crowley and finish in an overall time of 08:46:44.

Corinne Abraham reached the top-ten once again, this time building on her 9th place performance in 2018 to achieve her best finish yet. Abraham raced consistently across all three disciplines, including a sub-three-hour marathon, and crossed the line in 7th place (08:58:38), around ten minutes off podium-pace.

Susie Cheetham managed to keep a solid pace during the run to finish 19th. After completing the swim in 00:59:02, she remained consistent through the bike leg and held her own during the marathon to cross the line in 09:27:21.

Nikki Bartlett put in a strong performance on the bike (04:58:09) before slowing down on the run section. This resulted in her being the 23rd woman to cross the finish line at Ali`i Drive.

Despite a difficult year for Laura Siddall, breaking her collarbone in May after crashing her bike, she managed to finish the race in 25th. The swim was understandably challenging, but Siddall rode hard on the bike to gain on her competition. She recorded an overall time of 09:42:52.

In her first Pro IRONMAN World Championships, Kimberley Morrison performed well in both the swim (00:58:58) and bike (04:54:22). A difficult run at the end had her drop to 26th, however, Morrison stayed resilient on a course notoriously difficult for its debutants.

Out of the four Pro Men to compete for Great Britain, Joe Skipper was the first to finish as he crossed the line in 6th place (08:07:46). Despite facing a puncture with only five miles of the cycle leg remaining, his time trial cycling experience from earlier on in the year allowed him to maintain a bike pace just seconds shy of this year’s victor, Jan Frodeno (DEU).

Skipper has fought hard throughout the year, dealing with injuries and unfortunate DQs, but his training has certainly payed off. He finished the marathon in 02:53:30 to achieve his best World Championship finish yet.

Alistair Brownlee began the race with promising swim and cycle splits. Clocking in at 04:19:58 on the bike leg, Brownlee entered the cycle as part of the leading pack after a blisteringly fast 00:47:33 swim. His race began to slow in the final third, despite beginning the run in third place and maintaining that position for a few miles, Brownlee’s explosive start began to catch up on him and he crossed the line in 21st place (08:07:46).

Will Clarke finished four minutes after Brownlee in 25th. He kept a consistent pace throughout, with a 00:52:20 swim and 04:30:29 on the bike, he finished the race in 08:29:00.

Unfortunately, David McNamee was amongst several athletes, including Germany’s Patrick Lange, that were forced to leave the race early due to illness. McNamee has reached the Kona podium twice before (2017, 2018) and looked in great form on the swim (00:50:59) before exiting the race during the bike section.

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