Leading Female Professional Triathletes ready to race for GWM Ironman Western Australia title

Leading female professional triathletes from Australia and abroad are making their way to Busselton to race for the GWM IRONMAN Western Australia crown this Sunday. The women’s field features previous winners, podium finishers and up and comers, with 15 female professional athletes to line up for the 3.8km swim, 180km ride and 42.2km run.

Reigning GWM IRONMAN Western Australia champion Kylie Simpson will return to Busselton to defend her title this weekend. “We’ve had a really good lead into IRONMAN Western Australia with some good racing in the past month, just adding to the altitude training block we did straight after the World Championships,” said Simpson. “It was a great way to finish off the 2021 season with the win at IRONMAN Western Australia, securing my Kona slot as well. There were only two IRONMAN races in Australia last year and winning them both was special.”

Simpson has been overseas for the couple of months, finishing 22nd at the VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in October, before a training block Utah, a second at IRONMAN 70.3 Los Cabos and a third at IRONMAN Cozumel, both held in Mexico. “Los Cabos and Cozumel were always a part of the plan to lead into Busselton, executing them well and being on the podium both times has given us confidence that our build for Busselton is on track,” she said. “It was great to have the opportunity to get some international racing and training in, however, always nice to be back racing in Australia. The crowd support in a home race always trumps the overseas ones.”

Brisbane’s Sarah Crowley heads to IRONMAN Western Australia with an added incentive to take the win on Sunday, if she does she’ll become the first professional athlete to win all three Australian IRONMAN races in the same calendar year. “I love racing in Australia and I love supporting Australian races, although I have had great success overseas nothing is like racing and winning at home,” said Crowley. “Winning all three races in the same year would also be something to hold onto as a legacy from my career.” Crowley heads into the race after being the top Australian in seventh at October’s VinFast IRONMAN World Championship, and more recently finishing seventh at GWM IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne earlier this month.

“After a short break following Kona we returned to Australia and started a block specifically for IRONMAN Western Australia,” she said. “Things have gone well, we were able to fit in some big training weeks around IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne which we used as preparation for this race. I was a little stale for Melbourne after only a couple of weeks back training and with the broader goal of IRONMAN Western Australia, this has meant that I am ready for this IRONMAN.”

Crowley has had great success this year with her wins at IRONMAN Australia and the Cairns Airport IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Cairns and is keen to end 2022 on a high. “Relatively speaking, your sporting career is short, so I like to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself,” said Crowley. “We love to race a final race each year that uses all the fitness built up for the World Championships and empty the tank to cap off the season. It’s such a good way to end the year.”

Also set to line up on Sunday is 2021 IRONMAN Western Australia second place finisher Sarah Thomas, Radka Kahlefeldt who was second at IRONMAN Cairns, and Australian IRONMAN World Championship representatives Penny Slater, Renee Kiley and Dimity-Lee Duke. One athlete to keep an eye on is Queensland-based Dutch triathlete Lotte Wilms who will race her first IRONMAN as a professional this Sunday. Wilms has had great success in IRONMAN 70.3 races, wining the last two IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast titles and this year’s IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong. “The preparation for IRONMAN Western Australia has gone really well, though it was very short,” said Wilms. “I can’t say I have experienced a full IRONMAN training prep yet. I have built up my training hours since August this year and I trust my team that I have done enough to be in a great shape for my first IRONMAN. What I’m looking forward to the most is that feeling everyone talks about when you become an IRONMAN, I’m very curious to know how that feels,” she said.

Since 2004 GWM IRONMAN Western Australia has been a bucket-list race for athletes from all over the world and 2022 shows its international popularity isn’t slowing down, with IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 competitors from more than 40 countries on the start list. GWM IRONMAN Western Australia will see athletes taking on a 3.8km swim, 180km ride and 42.2km run, with GWM IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia featuring a 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21.1km run.

For more on GWM IRONMAN Western Australia visit https://www.ironman.com/im-western-australia

GWM IRONMAN Western Australia – Women’s Professional Field

31 – Kylie Simpson – (AUS)

32 – Sarah Thomas – (GBR)

33 – Sarah Crowley – (AUS)

34 – Radka Kahlefeldt – (AUS)

35 – Els Visser – (NLD)

36 – Penny Slater – (AUS)

37 – Renee Kiley – (AUS)

38 – Melanie Baumann – (CHE)

39 – Laura Brown – (AUS)

40 – Laura Dennis – (AUS)

41 – Dimity-Lee Duke – (AUS)

42 – Meredith Hill – (AUS)

43 – Moya Johansson – (AUS)

44 – Shannon Sutton – (AUS)

45 – Lotte Wilms – (NLD)

For more information contact:

Craig Heydon

craig.heydon@ironman.com

Public Relations & Media Director, The IRONMAN Group Oceania

Mob: 0402 318 918

Ruth Bowerman

ruth.bowerman@ironman.com     

Media Executive, The IRONMAN Group Oceania    

M: (+64) 21 209 6978