IRONMAN 70.3 Dubai
Seven hundred and seventy three athletes entered the Ironman 70.3 in Dubai last Friday – January 29th and among them were two Blackburn Harriers – Brian Fogarty and Paul Slone.
Brian put in another great performance to finish 13th overall in the Race – 1st Amateur in the Race overall and Winner of his Age Group (30-34yrs) in a time overall for the Swim, Bike and Run of 3.53.55, a time which was just a couple of minutes away from getting a top ten finish. Brian also won the fastest bike split. His performance has earned him an automatic place for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Australia. When you think that every athlete in front of Brian is a professional, it gives you some idea of the quality performance that he put in.
Speaking to the Club, Brian said that he was “Really happy with the result in Dubai. The race out there was always going to be a sound indicator of where I am in regards to my recovery from Kona. So to win was great and a really good start to my 2016 target to win the overall world athlete award. After coming 3rd last year I am very determined to get the win this year. Dubai was a great experience I was able to share with fellow Blackburn Harrier Paul Slone, who completed his 1st half ironman with a great effort coming 17th in his category. Great preparation for Ironman Lanzerote in May”.
Brian Video HERE
Full Results HERE
Race Website Report HERE
Paul who competes in the 44 – 49 Age Group also had a very good competition finishing 179th overall and 17th in his Age Group – out of 95 athletes in that Age Category – with a combined time of 4.43.59. Paul was pleased with his performance saying “I came 179th out of 751. So I was happy with that in my first event. It put me in the top 25 percent and was a big learning curve. 17th in my age group”.
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Another great performance too last weekend from V55 Bob Shorrock who won the third Race in the King of The Hills Mountain Marathon Series in Hong Kong.
This latest Race means that Bob has won the first three of the 4 Race series and will be looking for a clean sweep in the last one coming up at Sai Kung. Bob was pleased, as you can imagine with his performances to date and told the Club that he “Had the 3rd King of the Hills yesterday – finished 9th overall (1st V55). I ran out of gas in the last 10K, so lost a couple of places – need to do a bit more mileage in training ahead of the last race at the end of Feb”.
This was part of the Race Report taken from the Race website which shows how fantastic his performance has been and is a reminder that life really does begin in your 50’s.!!
‘Michael Skobierski took the lead after Sha Lo Tung and led from the front the rest of the way with Pierre-Andrew Ferriere hot on his heals. By Kuk Po CP 5 Michael had opened up a 100 second lead and was able to hold this lead the rest of the way. Michael finished in 3:35:47 and Pierre-Andrew in 3:37:48. After showing great potential in the KOTH Lantau race earlier this month, Michael confirmed his status as a top trail runner in HK. Baptise Piyou surged passed a tiring Guy Connel at the end to finish third (3:42:55) withGuy fourth.Jeremy Ritcey finished 5Th overall and first in his new M40 age category (3:48:32). (Jeremy, one of the few benefits of getting older is that you get to enter a new age category.) Fast open category runners Clement Dumont, Stefand Del Favero and Ng Kwok Lun finished 6th, 7th, and 8thoverall respectively. Bob Shorrock was 9th and first in the M55 category (3:54:54). Bob may be the only person who has won his age group in every KOTH race he has ever entered’.
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