KOHALA COAST — Hawaii, a Honu title and a honeymoon. ADVERTISING KOHALA COAST — Hawaii, a Honu title and a honeymoon. Frederic Limousin probably couldn’t have asked for a better trip to the Big Island. Limousin cruised to a first
KOHALA COAST — Hawaii, a Honu title and a honeymoon.
Frederic Limousin probably couldn’t have asked for a better trip to the Big Island.
Limousin cruised to a first overall finish at IRONMAN 70.3 Hawaii on Saturday crossing the finish line at the Fairmont Orchid’s historic Honu Pointe in 4 hours 24 minutes and 4 seconds.
“It was a dream for me to win in Hawaii. It is the best place in the world for a triathlete,” Limousin said. “It was a very beautiful, but difficult race. On the bike I had no problem, but the run and those golf course hill climbs were very tough.”
It was Limousin’s debut in Honu, but he had raced previously in two IRONMAN World Championships as an age grouper.
The 34-year-old out of France in now a professional triathlete, but it was not the draw of points or prize money that attracted him to the Big Island. Honu dropped its professional field this year to concentrate on its age groupers, although the pros were still welcome to participate.
“I wanted to do this race with my wife for our honeymoon,” Limousin said. “I wanted to cross the finish line with her when she comes in.”
A few hours later, Limousin was able to accomplish that feat, meeting his wife Perrine Limousin — Perrine Cagneaux on the results — at the finish line.
Rounding out the men’s overall top three were Australia’s Tim Rea at 4:26:04 and Canadian Calvin Zaryski, with a time of 4:32:31.
The most impressive performance early in the day went to Adam Lacey, who rocketed through the swim in 27:15 for an early lead. However, Lacey would face trouble on the bike with multiple flats and fall back, settling for 79th overall.
The early deficit didn’t bother Rae.
“The swim is always my weakest, but I worked hard on the way out on the bike and caught a lot of guys on the way back,” he said.
After the bike, Rae and the rest of the field played a game of chase the “Limousin” on the run. But there was no catching the runaway Frenchman.
“I spotted him on Mile 6 but knew there was no way I could catch him,” Rae said.
While the overall honors went to Limousin, Rea and Zaryski won their age groups — Rea in ages 25-29 and Zaryski in 45-49. That earned them two of 30 available spots available from the race in the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships that will be held in Zell Am See-Kaprun, Austria on Aug. 30.
“I was aiming to be in the top of the age groupers, so I’m really happy with second overall,” Rea said. “I really set it up on the bike and brought it home on the run.”
