Ironman Western Australia-Baldwin eyes 18-24 age group win |26 November 2011

This is Baldwin’s third ironman race in what has described as “a very long season”.

Baldwin will leave the country on Monday and arrive in Busselton, in the south of Perth, on Thursday to take part in the competition which will be contested by 1,500 triathletes.

Speaking to Sports Nation, Baldwin said his goal is to challenge for the 18-24 age group win to qualify for the 2012 Ford Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

In this year’s world championships, Baldwin had the race of his life, finishing second out of 38 in the 18-24 age group and 108th overall out of over 1,900 athletes, including professionals.

Baldwin, who went to the worlds with the ambition of achieving a top-five finish, finished the race on the medals podium and with a new personal best (PB) time of 9 hours 18 minutes 15 seconds (9h18:15) – 9:41 faster than his previous best of 9h27:56 clocked at the 7th Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa at the Nelson Mandela Bay in Port Elizabeth on Sunday April 10 this year to win the 18-24 age group to qualify for Kona.

He registered split times of 1:0014 in the 2.4-mile (3.8km) swim, 4h54:31 in the 112-mile (180km) cycling and 3h18:32 in the 26.2-mile (42.2km) run in Kona. All of his split times were PBs.

G. G.