First Ironman finish for Ballito’s Jonsson

Ballito’s Zayntana Jonsson braved recently E.Coli free waters and the Durban heat to finish her first Ironman at the weekend.

The Ironman is essentially three full events wrapped into one, testing the athletes’ abilities to swim, cycle and run over distances that would be difficult by themselves, let alone back-to-back.

It was the 1.9km swim at Ushaka Beach that had a huge question mark hanging over it in the weeks prior to the race because of water quality concerns.

Many of eThekwini’s beaches had been closed, but conditions had improved enough by last Friday that the race on Sunday was given the go-ahead.

“We were all constantly monitoring the news of the race because obviously it would have been really tough to lose one third of the event that has taken so long to train for,” said Jonsson.

But once the swim was confirmed, it was time to focus for the 985 finishers from 26 countries.

“We were blessed with perfect sea conditions on the day which made for a really good start,” she said.

The 90km cycle section – two laps from Ushaka to Umdloti – followed, after which a half-marathon (21.1km) closed the day.

“On the second lap of the cycle race it began to get really hot, but you have to expect that in Durban. It was all about pushing through to the finish from there.”

Jonsson finished in 6:21.07, with splits of 44.36, 3:20.07 and 1:57.59 for the three parts respectively.

It was good for 13th in her 30-35 category and 374th overall.

“I was really happy with my first finish. I had completed two triathlons before but they were lesser distances than the Ironman, so this was a big step up for sure.”

To find the full list of results, visit ironman.com/im703-durban.

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