Ill turn ends in fever for win
WHEN he took the start line at The Strand, Gold Coast triathlete David Mainwaring was unsure if he would even finish the race.
After battling a crippling fever this week, the professional triathlete had endured little activity leading up to the starting line of the Mater Olympic distance triathlon.
But it would barely show, as he went on to crush the competition by almost two minutes, finishing the 1.5km swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run in 01.50.45.
It was a perfect tune-up for Mainwaring as he sets himself for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in France next month.
“I am pretty happy; I came up here for a good training hit out. The guy in second was pushing me quite hard on the bike; it was what I wanted so I was happy with that,” he said.
“I wasn’t concerned about the time, I was just happy to get the win and come away from here feeling fresh.”
But it was a win that almost wasn’t for the NSWborn athlete, who could not stop his body from shaking on Wednesday night.
“It was weird; I did a run session on Wednesday and felt really good and then, come that night, I started getting shaky and was sweating uncontrollably with a fever. This morning was my first bit of exercise since then,” he said. “On the start line I felt all right but I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel out there on the course. I felt better and better as the race went on.
“There was a point where I wasn’t sure if I was going to compete. If I did the swim and was absolutely shocking I may have pulled out, but I just don’t like pulling out of races.”
Mainwaring came out of the water in third spot before losing a position on the transition to the bike. He improved to second spot heading into the run leg before the former marathon runner brought it home with an impressive run split of 32.38 minutes.
“On the run there wasn’t really much wind because it was fairly protected on the course. On the bike there was a bit more wind but it was more of a cross wind than a head wind,” he said.
“I didn’t know we had to run up the bridge out the back, so that was a nice surprise uphill stretch.
“I came from a running background before triathlon, but run is also the hardest because it is at the end of the event.”
ITU World Triathlon Championships finalist Yoann Colin, 21, finished second across the line in 01.52.08 while local competitor and North Queensland Triathlon Academy member Connor Mckay finished third in 01.54.43.