Kyle’s career looks good after remarkable race
THAT Kyle Buckingham was out on his bike for two hours yesterday, the day after finishing the SpecSavers Ironman SA in a remarkable seventh place, was a clear signal that if anything stands in his way of becoming a professional, it is not going to be a lack of dedication or commitment.
Buckingham, 29, was not only the first agegroup athlete home, he was the first South African to cross the line, finishing in eight hours, 34 minutes, 34 seconds, ahead of SA professionals Kent Horner (eighth among the top 10 pros) and Michael Davidson (10th).
Experienced Port Elizabeth triathlete Alec Riddle, who assisted Buckingham with part of his training, described his effort as phenomenal and said it underlined his talent.
Asked about his bike ride yesterday, Buckingham explained: “Oh, that was just part of my training programme [he is coached by Ironman legend Raynard Tissink]. I had to do a two-hour ride, and I’m feeling fine.”
Reflecting on his race, in which he came within a minute of breaking the 30-34 age-group world record, Buckingham said it was more or less what he had aimed for. “That was what I was expecting,” he said yesterday. “From my bike fitness and run fitness, I was expecting to do between 8:35 and 8:45. I bettered that by a minute. With the bike, it was amazing. The fastest I have done before was 4:54 and I did 4:39, so I took quite a bit off there and backed it up with a great marathon which I did in 2:58. I’m super happy with the outcome.”
Buckingham, though, felt he would have done even better if the age-groupers had not started 15 minutes after the professionals, feeling he had to work much harder at stages, being on his own.
“I would have loved it if the agegroupers and pros had gone together,” he said. “I think I probably would have stayed with them on the bike because the whole bike leg I was on my own. It was quite lonely and I had to do all the work on my own, and if I was with the main pack I could possibly have taken 10 minutes off my time.”
Nonetheless, Buckingham says he is living his dream and his performance has given a massive boost to his planned pro career. However, he is not rushing things, on the advice of coach Tissink.
“Raynard wants me to go to Kona [world championships] and to win my age-group, so that’s the plan, and then go pro next year,” he said.
“I am going to knock off a few halfIronmans in Europe and then go to the Vegas world champs (70.3) and then the Kona world champs (Ironman) and try to win my age-group at both. So it was an amazing day – I believe I am on the right path and next year I’ll be back in the pros, aiming for a win.” At last night’s award function, mayor Ben Fihla confirmed that the municipality would remain involved with the event for the next three years.
However, race director Paul Wolff said they would still be looking for a title sponsor for 2014 after the withdrawal of Spec-Savers.