KMD Ironman Copenhagen |23 August 2013
Baldwin finishes fourth with new PB
Nick Baldwin set a huge overall personal best by 30 minutes and finished fourth overall – his highest overall placing at an international race – during Sunday’s KMD Ironman Copenhagen in Denmark.
Baldwin finished the 140.6-mile race in a combined time of 8 hours 18 minutes 08 seconds (8h18:08), only 5 minutes 30 seconds behind the winner – Denmark’s Jens Petersen-Bach who crossed the finish line with a time of 8h12:41.
The KMD Ironman Copenhagen was Baldwin’s main race of the season and following months of relentless training specifically for this 140.6-mile race, he was confident of improving his old personal best time of 8h48:01 set at Ironman South Africa earlier this year.
This year has been based around peaking for this event, so Ironman Copenhagen was a massively important race for Baldwin. The start of the race was very tactical, with a small group of athletes quickly gaining an advantage over many of them in the swim. Approaching the end of the 2.4-mile swim, Baldwin increased the effort and led the main chase pack out of the water with a new PB of 52:46.
The start of the 112-mile bike leg was very fast with the route taking the competitors through closed roads in the centre of Copenhagen and into the surrounding countryside. Throughout the bike leg, Baldwin said he felt fantastic, coming off with another PB of 4h31:05 (average speed of 24.8 mph) and in second place overall.
With the streets lined with thousands of spectators cheering them on, which really helped give them a boost after more than five hours of hard racing, Baldwin started off the run leg aggressively hoping to make up a few places in the early stages of the 26.2-mile marathon.
After going through the halfway point of the run in 1h24:53 he was in fourth place with the fifth-place competitor right behind him, but they were nearly five minutes behind the third-placed runner.
The final half of the run is always the most critical stage of an Ironman – it’s the business end of the race where the competitors have to fight through the pain. At this point, Baldwin put in a tactical surge for three miles to shake off fifth place behind him.
“The crowd support was fantastic throughout the day and really helped inspire me during the final miles of the run when everything hurt and all my body wanted to do was stop! I gave it everything all the way to the finish line and ended up just 90 seconds shy of third place in a total time of 8h18:08. The highlight of the day was definitely the run, a 14-minute PB which at 2h49:57 is the 28th fastest run split of the entire year across 18 different international ironman races,” said Baldwin.
The Seychellois triathlete is hugely grateful for everyone’s support, especially that of his sponsors – ISPC Seychelles, Eden Island Marina, Vijay Construction and Air Seychelles – who enable him to race at the highest level of triathlon.
Danish triathletes Henrik Hyldelund (8h13:39) and Esben Hovgaard (8h16:38) were second and third, while Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark enjoyed enthusiastic support by fans in the streets and completed the race in 10h45:32.
Eva Wutti became the third fastest woman in Ironman history with a winning time of 8h37:36. Only legendary UK triathlete Chrissie Wellington, who retired last year, and Switzerland’s Caroline Steffen have posted faster times in Ironman races. Wellington set her ironman world record time of 8h33:56 at Spec Savers Ironman South Africa in 2011.
Compiled by G. G.