Far North’s finest tackle all Ironman comers

A NUMBER of Far North competitors will fight it out against the largest field of professional athletes yet to contest an Ironman 70.3 on Australian soil when they descend on Mooloolaba for tomorrow’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship.

Cairns’ oldest competitor, Ross Oakley at the age of 61, will be in the field, as will Tara Callesen, Nadine Edwards, Peter Wex and Sarah Thomas among others.

Oakley said he was looking forward to the challenge.

“I did the world championships last year in Austria so it is really nice to have it in your home country this time round,” Oakley said.

“The weather will be what it will be, it will be difficult if it is windy or rainy, it will be a tough course this year which is what you want for this type of event.” Oakley said he had been training hard leading into the event.

“It is not just me, there is a lot of guys older than me,” he said.

“It fascinates me how many older people can race well.

“On a personal level, it is about consistency and hard work, I have stayed uninjured recently which really helps.”

The other competitors from the Far North all train together and under the guidance of Bill Evans.

“It has been a busy couple of months for our squad having so many athletes competing at so many world championship events in such a short time frame,” Evans said.

“Five members of our squad will be competing at the Ironman 70.3 world championships on the Sunshine Coast and two other members of the team will be off to Mexico to race for Ireland at the ITU world sprint championships in couple of weeks. Another member of our team, Mary-Anne Elkington, is already in Perth for this week’s UCI world sprint time trial championships.”

The women’s race looks set to sizzle with back-to-back Ironman 70.3 World Champion Daniella Ryf taking on Australia’s two-time Ironman 70.3 World Champion Melissa Hauschildt, and Caroline Steffen, the Swiss star racing in her adopted hometown.