TRIATHLON: Mark shows steel on Ironman debut (From Wiltshire Times)

TRIATHLON: Mark shows steel on Ironman debut

5:00pm Friday 10th February 2012 in Sport News

MELKSHAM’S Mark Threlfall was delighted that his first foray into the Ironman circuit ended in success after he claimed a fourth-placed finish at the biggest Ironman 70.3 race in the world: the Ironman 70.3 South Africa.

The 22-year-old, of Conway Crescent, completed a 1.2 mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run in 4 hours, 19 minutes and 46 seconds in the south-eastern city of East London at the end of last month.

Threlfall, who studied Industrial Design and Technology at Loughborough University, was just over a minute behind third-place Italian Domenico Passuello and felt that he could have even clinched a podium place.

“The Ironman transition procedure is new to me compared to the racing that I have been used to and I made a silly error with my bag that cost me valuable time and possibly the chance of getting on the podium – a podium would have been incredible for my debut,” said Threlfall.

“The race was very competitive with some of the top pros present and South Africa is a notoriously hard course where you have to head straight uphill for the first 45km of the bike and do two laps of the run up a killer hill.

“The other guys were all a lot older than me and have been full-time and professional for a number of years, but I have literally been full-time for a matter of months, so I am really excited about my fourth place.

“With it being our winter I wouldn’t say I am race fit either, so hopefully there is still more to come.”

Threlfall is part of Great Britain’s Triathlon World Class squad and claimed an U23 bronze medal at the ITU World Cross Triathlon Championships in Spain last April.

The Melksham triathlete is currently in the middle of a two-month training spell in South Africa and his participation in last month’s race was meant as preparation for June’s Ironman 70.3 UK event in Brompton Regis, Somerset.

He added: “I prefer the Ironman style of racing as I consider my biking to be one of my strengths.

“The event itself is very well organised and thousands of age group and amateur athletes race alongside us.

“This takes some serious planning and organisation, and Ironman seem to have it down to a tee.”