12 August 2008
Auckland recruiter Captain Shanon Stallard brought home a bronze medal from the 2008 World Age Group triathlon championships in Vancouver.
Shanon, who has just returned to New Zealand after also competing in Ironman France, says the Triathlon championships were not well organised, and on the race morning the organisers told competitors the swim would be cancelled and replaced with a short run. “So we weren’t doing a triathlon, it was going to be a duathlon run-bike-run. All that swimming training – for what!”
There was some confusion at the finish as to who had placed third, but the placings were confirmed and Shanon was awarded the bronze medal.
“Goal achieved… however the fact that we did not swim took some of the shine off the success. Is this really a Triathlon Medal… or a Duathlon Medal? If we had swam would I have done better or worst? I had bet the American that won at both the last two World Champs… he was a minute behind me out of the water in Hamburg last year. The guy that got second was a Kiwi. I bet him by nearly two minutes at the National Champs, so maybe I would have beaten these two. There no doubt would have been other, better swimmers who would have been up there. At the end of the day we all went to the World Champs with a goal to win.”
Shanon was placed 55th in the Ironman France, out of a field of 2500 competitors.
“The Ironman was a whole new experience… from the sprinting of the Olympic Distance Triathlon to the continuous racing of the Ironman. I had done very little Ironman specific training having focused all my training on the Worlds, so I went into this race a little unprepared. What occurred rocked me, emotionally and physically.”
He was placed 8th in the 25-29yr age group.His times were:
- Swim: 57:36
- Cycle: 5:26:23
- Run: 3:20:16
- Finish time: 9:51:24.