Where are the world's fastest Ironman® 70.3 race courses for professional athletes?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28985/1223.jsc.05Keywords:
endurance, cycling, half-distance ironman, multi-sport, swimming, triathlonAbstract
The dominance of certain nations in certain sports disciplines is well knowed in scientific context. For triathlon, it has been reported that most of the finishers, and the fastest in Ironman® Hawaii originated from the United States of America. However, nothing is known regarding the role of specific race courses in athletes' performance. The present study aimed to analyze where the fastest split and overall race times for Ironman® 70.3 races were achieved. The locations of the fastest Ironman® 70.3 competitions were processed throughout 163 different event locations. Race records were aggregated by location, and the split and full finish times. The Ironman® 70.3 races in Dubai, Kronborg, and Mandurah presented the fastest race course. For split disciplines, the fastest swim times were recorded for women and men in the Ironman® 70.3 races in Busan, Panama, and Augusta. For cycling, the fastest times were achieved for both women and men in Ironman® 70.3 Tallinn, followed by the Ironman® 70.3 Dubai and Bahrain. The fastest running times were recorded for women and men in Ironman® 70.3 Kronborg, the Ironman® 70.3 Nice, and Les Sables d’Olonne. Differences among the race course were found, except for the running discipline. Professional triathletes and coaches could use this information to design optimal race courses and training strategies for performance improvement.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Science and Cycling
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to Journal of Science and Cycling agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND license, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially, under the condition that appropriate credit is given, that a link to the license is provided, and that you indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to Cycling Research Center.