FROM THE VAULT ISSUE 53

We take the multisport

DeLorean back to February 1994 this month and 220’ s sadly short-lived venture into country and westernthemed covers, complete with rising pro triathlete Wendy Ingraham, of the USA, chewing on a piece of straw.

Ingraham would go on to win Ironmans Australia, Austria and Brazil, but it’s as one part of ‘The Crawl’ from the Ironman World Championships in 1997 that she’s best known today.

Heather Fuhr and Lori Bowden had made it a Canadian one-two in Kona, leaving Californians Ingraham and Sian Welch to battle for bronze. The former was suffering from severe stomach cramps; the latter had been vomiting cola since the bike leg.

With 100m of the 226km race to go, Welch was staggering and falling to her feet, aware of an incoming Ingraham. Both began to waddle and tumble, before falling to their feet on the iconic Ali’i Drive blue carpet as Brazil’s Fernanda Keller passed them for third place.

It was now a crawl-off for fourth, with Ingraham edging Welch in the slow-motion showdown of human endeavour before hauling her compatriot across the line. “We were like Laurel and Hardy,” was Ingraham’s post-race verdict. A stone-cold classic Kona moment was born.

“It’s as one part of ‘The Crawl’ from the 1997 Ironman Worlds that she’s best known today”