Champ up for unique race

Ironwoman Crowley raring to go

FORMER champion Sarah Crowley is as ready as she can be for the most unique Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship race of her career to date.

The 2017 winner will be the most high-profile starter of the nine-strong field in the pro women’s category, and she would have to be considered among the favourites given her previous success on the course.

It’s a smaller starting list than previous years due to the coronavirus pandemic and associated restrictions, but if last week’s Ironman event at the Sunshine Coast is anything to go by the competition will be just as fierce.

“There’s virtual crew meetings and changes to rego and briefings, and everyone’s lined up 1.5 metres apart, but while those things are different the feeling of racing is no different to normal,” Crowley said.

“Everyone’s in the same boat in terms of the conditions of competition, restrictions and preparation. It’s so good to be back out there racing.”

Crowley won the event in 2017, then withdrew in 2018 due to an injury.

Last year, she left everything on the course, and an exhausted Crowley was pushed around her post-race commitments in a wheelchair after crossing second behind twotime champion Teresa Adam.

New Zealander Adam will not be in the field this year, but Crowley will find herself up against Sunshine Coast-based trio Beth McKenzie, Els Visser and Amelia Watkinson, who won the Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast.

Crowley, who was second in that race, which was the first Ironman event to be held in Australia since the coronavirus pandemic hit our shores, said she felt good after her return to competition and was confident of a strong showing at Cairns.

There will be 75 qualifying slots for the 2020-21 World Championship up for grabs this weekend, but Crowley has already punched her ticket to Kona.

“After Hawaii last year we knew there’d be a few changes but we wanted to make sure we’d have some flexibility with the schedule,” Crowley said.

“I’m already locked in for the world championships next year, but the challenge is now do we have a purple patch of form now and rebuild or do we spend the next 12 months working towards Kona?

“I am 100 per cent committed to putting in my best performance at Cairns.”