Australian Olympic triathlete Aaron Royle has won his first IRONMAN 70.3 race, taking victory in the men’s field at IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast, with multiple winner Amelia Watkinson claiming top spot on the podium in the women’s race.
Royle edged out Queensland’s Max Neumann by less than a minute, with the two shadowing each other over the 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21km run, with Josh Amberger crossing the line in third.
New South Welshman Royle, who has based himself in Queensland in the lead up to the event, took out his first IRONMAN 70.3 title in just his second attempt at the distance.
“To be honest I was pretty scared for most of that race, it’s only my second half distance race and the whole time I just expected myself to blow up,” Royle said. “Full credit to Max, he led that whole run and I sat in behind him and with about 3km to go I gave it a bit to see what the legs had left and luckily they had a bit left in them.
“It’s been a tough year, the Olympics were supposed to go ahead and they were the main aim,” he said. “Then 12 hours before the borders shut six weeks or so ago I made the mad dash to be in the state because that’s where I knew the races would be and have been hanging out here keeping my fingers crossed that the race could go ahead.
“Even though we haven’t raced all that much the body is quite tired. One thing with this year is that we normally go in and out of races and that’s where the recovery is,” Royle said. “We haven’t had that so I actually got quite tired and have a few little niggles that I’ve had to overcome, so I might take this opportunity to finish the year quite early, have a break and let the body recovery. It’s hopefully going to be a big year next year.”
Amberger led the field back onto Mooloolaba Beach after the 1.9km swim, with Royle and Neumann moving into first and second by the completion of the bike course. Royle and Neumann edge away over the run, with Royle making his break for victory in the closing stages.
Queensland based New Zealander Amelia Watkinson added another IRONMAN 70.3 victory to her impressive resume, coming across the line ahead of 2019 IRONMAN World Championship podium finisher Sarah Crowley and Rio 2016 Olympic Games representative Ashleigh Gentle.
“It’s definitely been a long time, and has been mentally strenuous for everyone, but training through has really paid off and I’m thrilled being out there doing what we’re supposed to do,” Watkinson said. “The race was actually quite interesting, three of us were out of the water together, I think the others had a slightly better exit on the wave than me but straight out onto the bike I managed to take the lead after about 15km and kept that till the very end.
“We’re really lucky here in Queensland that we’ve got IRONMAN Cairns next, that will be just my second full distance IRONMAN ever, hoping for a Kona qualification up there in two weeks’ time,” she said.
Australian Olympian Gentle was first out of the water, just ahead of Watkinson and Crowley, with Kiwi Watkinson moving into the lead on the Sunshine Motorway during the bike leg. Watkinson didn’t look back from there, eventually taking the win from Crowley by just over three minutes.
IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast is the first IRONMAN event to take place in Oceania since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, with the event operating under an approved COVID Safe Event Plan.
