Close contest expected in East London at Spec-Savers IRONMAN 70.3 South Africa

It doesn’t get much bigger than this! The 6th edition of the Spec-Savers IRONMAN 70.3 South Africa already has the makings of a thrilling contest with a highly competitive professional field set to take part. Some of the top triathlon talent from around the world and South Africa will be lining up in the first wave at one of the world’s biggest IRONMAN 70.3 events.
 
Defending champion, Marino Vanhoenacker will not be back to defend his title so we are guaranteed a new male champion in 2013. South African favourite, James Cunnama will be back after missing this year’s race through injury. Cunnama comes into the race as one of the favourites having finished 2nd in East London on two occasions and is in good form having won Challenge Roth this year breaking the 8-hour barrier in the process.
 
Another second place finisher, Switzerland’s Ronnie Schildknecht is also returning to go that one step further. Schildknecht is a multiple IRONMAN Switzerland winner and will be highly motivated to finish on top in January after narrowly missing out to Vanhoenacker this year.
 
An athlete causing quite a stir is Germany’s Faris Al-Sultan. The German is a former IRONMAN World Champion and finished 5th at this year’s IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii in October. He will be racing in East London for the first time in January and will be one to watch.
 
The ladies race will be a hotly contested affair with the top three from this year returning. Great Britain’s Jodie Swallow, Czech Republic’s Lucie Zelenkova, and Belgian, Tine Deckers (BEL).
 
In contrast to the men, the women’s field contains two Spec-Savers IRONMAN 70.3 South Africa champions in the form of Swallow and Zelenkova. Swallow is the defending champion having taken the 2011 and 2012 titles in succession. It’s hard to look past the former IRONMAN 70.3 world champion but her title will be under threat from Zelenkova who won in East London in 2009, finished second this year and has been on the podium in three of the last four races. Former IRONMAN France champion, Tine Deckers will be hoping to get to number one having finished 3rd and 2nd respectively in the last two years.
 
The race will also feature some big names from outside of the IRONMAN arena in the form of ITU stalwart, Tim Don (GBR), South African Olympian, Richard Murray and Travis Johnston who represented South Africa at the Hy-Vee 5150 US Championship this year. Don has competed in East London before, finishing 4th in 2009.
 
British triathlete couple, Stephen and Bella Bayliss will be making a long awaited return to South Africa having won IRONMAN South Africa in 2008. South Africa’s favourite triathlete couple, Kent and Claire Horner will also be back in January after a busy 2012 which saw them race all over the world including the IRONMAN World Championship 70.3 in Las Vegas. The Horner’s were the highest placed South African finishers at IRONMAN 70.3 South Africa this year while Kent won the 5150 Bela Bela Triathlon in August this year.
 
With such a vast array of talent on display at the 2013 Spec-Savers IRONMAN 70.3 South Africa, the eyes of the East London crowd and the triathlon world will be firmly fixed upon East London on Sunday 20 January 2013. The race is once again sold out and will see in total 2986 individuals including 38 professionals and 100 teams competing.