Why Sri Lanka is the natural home for Ironman 70.3 as Dubai's Olivier Godart wins again

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Sri Lanka. Home of sun-kissed beaches, glorious weather, a rich heritage, stunning scenery – and now one of the world’s most punishing sports.

    Chances are that, if you’re living in the UAE, you have come across several people who have hopped on a SriLankan Airlines flight and visited a country that has recently thrown its arms open to the world.

    However, a select 497 visitors last month weren’t attracted to Sri Lanka for the sun and sand, nor the sea – with the exception of a lung-busting swim.

    They came for IRONMAN 70.3, which has found a natural landing spot along the picturesque coast of the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.

    If you’re unfamiliar with the organisers that stage the world’s most recognisable triathlons, Ironman has grown from humble beginnings in 1978 with just 15 participants in Kona, Hawaii – the iconic venue of the World Championships to this very day – into an all-year calendar spanning across six continents.

    Colombo holds a ‘middle-distance’ triathlon, but the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run that make up the 70.3 brand is hardly a middling effort.

    03 03 ironman-1rev

    Race director and proud Sri Lankan Rajan Thananayagam has competed on the hallowed ground of Kona and always knew his homeland would make a superb addition to Ironman’s diary.

    “This event is not just about Ironman, but what can Ironman do for this country,” said Thananayagam, an 18-time Ironman finisher. “As an Ironman athlete myself I have travelled around the world and done this race, and I can see what impact this race can have on communities. I thought ‘Why not bring Ironman to Sri Lanka’?

    “This is a country that had decades and decades of civil war, and we are trying now to rediscover ourselves, recreate ourselves and be more relevant in this world.

    “It is not an easy journey, it’s is a hard one. So it’s not about swim bike and run, but what this event can do to this country. There are nearly 800 athletes out there and everyone has a unique story – this event is about showcasing those stories.”

    Colombo proved quite a parchment for those stories. The swim launched off the beach strip in front of the historic Galle Face Green, a promenade first established in 1859.

    The clock rolls back to ancient times when cycling through the Port of Colombo, where thousands of years ago traders from the Roman Empire, Arabia and China all mingled with locals at the harbour.

    03 03 ironman-2rev

    The Indian Ocean is the backdrop for the run – something to take the mind off the previous few hours of punishment – before a raucous crowd at Galle Face Green ushers athletes over the finish line.

    This year’s men’s winner is surely now an honorary Sri Lankan – he won the inaugural edition, too. UAE-based Olivier Godart, who has lived in Dubai since 2004, plunged through the finishers’ chute in just four hours and five minutes, somehow defying the oppressive 30-degree late morning heat.

    “There’s no secret, it’s hard work,” said the 44-year-old, who hails from Luxembourg. “You have to be a very tenacious person. It sounds like an easy task, ‘ooh yeah, you’re swimming next to the Shangri-La, it sounds like a lot of fun’. It’s a different level, it’s a different beast.

    “I’ve been doing this for 10 years, I’ve won pretty much every Ironman 70.3 as an amateur under the sun. So I know that I have a certain pedigree in the game that I’m proud of.

    “This is the half distance, you need to put a lot of ‘boom boom’ out there. Over Ironman and long distances I can do this for a couple more years, but after this year I think I’ll retire – it’s over I think. I feel as fresh as a daisy though.”

    It’s clear that Colombo isn’t a by-the-numbers Ironman – if there is such a thing. But the statistics are quite staggering all the same.

    A total of 276 natives took part out of the 773 entrants, while nearly a quarter of all participants were women.

    Cycle_02 (1)

    Ironman ambassador Julie Moss, who famously crawled over the line at Kona in 1982 only to be pipped by Kathleen McCartney, believes Colombo is an example of just how far the sport has come.

    “I have a lot of choices in the races that I go to, but this one wasn’t a choice because I met Rajan in Kona,” said the 60-year-old. “We had a conversation and there was no place else I was going to be in February.

    “The fact that they had a goal to raise the percentage of women taking part in the race to 25 per cent, we’ve come really close. To extend that, there was a 25 per cent off entry fee for women and 25 extra slots to the World Championships in Nice. This is saying that not only are we treating all our athletes to a world class event, but we’re encouraging women to step up and enter in more numbers than they have.

    “I’ve watched the sport grow for more than 37 years. One of my greatest privileges is to see the sport at the level it is at now.”

    Ironman and Sri Lanka have both come a long way indeed.

    Recommended