By KATIE DE VERTEUIL
STRONG, determined and humble – Noosa’s Trevor Mathews is a true Ironman.
Aged 70, the local athlete recently claimed first place for his age category at the 2015 Asia-Pacific Ironman Championships in Melbourne.
Completing the challenging course with a time of 12 hours 25 minutes, Trevor blitzed the field, crossing the line 1 hour 23 minutes ahead of second place.
His triumph has qualified him for the ‘holy grail’ of long distance triathlon, the Hawaii ironman in October this year.
While Trevor’s level of fitness and perseverance is impressive in itself, what makes his latest achievement even more noteworthy, is that just two years ago he was undergoing radiation treatment, battling against three melanomas in his lungs.
“I completed my treatment 15 months ago and the melanomas were discovered 12 months prior to that,” Trevor said.
“When I was going through the radiation treatment I thought to myself that I really wanted to do one last Ironman before I kicked the bucket.
“It was something on my bucket list I guess you’d say.”Chatting away to Trevor, it is clear that he is passionate about his sport.
Indeed it was back in Forster in 1985 that he completed in Australia’s first ever Ironman, aged 40.
“My mates competed in the first one in Cronulla back in 1981 and I watched from the sidelines, then I bought a bike and started training,” Trevor said.
“I came from a surfing background, so was often swimming and running on the sand.”
Now resting up before serious training begins for Hawaii, Trevor is excited to be returning to the Championships which he has completed once before, back in 1990.“About 20 weeks out I’ll start preparing for the Championships, it will be great to go back,” he said, smiling.
