Britain’s Ironcouple Bella Comerford and Stephen Bayliss are both looking forward to returning in 2009 to the Ford Ironman World Championships after finishing 7th and 19th respectively.
Comerford, extremely satisfied with her 7th position is looking to go better next year, whilst Bayliss is looking to reach his full potential as just weeks prior to the event he had spent three days in a Korean hospital after coming down with what is best described in layman’s terms as blood poisoning caused by contaminated food that he consumed while preparing for the race in Jeju Korea with the rest of the all conquering Team TBB.
On their races…
Bella Comerford said “I am absolutely over the moon to have finished 7th at Hawaii. My goal was to finish top 10. Through the race I thought that might not be possible, but I kept my head together and dealt with the challenges that came to me. I was nervous coming into the race as I find the hot conditions difficult. But I feel that I conquered Hawaii!
Next year I will be back, and I believe I can improve on 7th.”
Stephen Bayliss said “ I had a good start and ended up in the main group behind the 3 leaders. I came out of the water in 9th and onto the bike with the main group. I didn’t quite have the power to stay with this group and had an average bike ride to coming off somewhere in the mid 20’s [later I learnt I was 30th]. I wanted to have a good run, but off the bike I felt pretty wasted with a very stiff back. I got going a bit and picked up a few places, but did not have the spring in my step that I have had in other races this year.
In the end I finished 19th, I came for the experience and didn’t expect any particular result but thought I may be able to scrapped a top 10, which would have been possible with a 2:50 run. It was not to be on this occasion. I have learnt a lot from this race and will be back next year fitter and stronger.”
For full race results or more information on the race visit IronmanLive.com.
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