Sallie Holt is going to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
It’s got a nice sound to it hasn’t it?
Sallie, an almost ever present at Swim Squad sessions, qualified for the World Championships at Ironman 70.3 Weymouth this weekend.
Anybody who was tracking her race on the Ironman tracker knows what a great race performance she had. And that race performance was without the swim – her strongest discipline – which was cancelled shortly before the race start due to electrical storms.
So what should have been 1.9k swim, 90k bike, 21.1k run was cut (absolutely the right decision by the sounds of it) to a 90k bike and a 21k run – not doing the strong triathlete swimmers any favours!
The Race
A strong bike leg in some wet and windy weather brought her into transition in 10th position in her age group.
A solid start.
And then a well-paced run saw her run through the field, keeping us spectators on the edge of our seats as she passed 9th, 8th, 7th and 6th … finishing 5th in her age group.
Sallie ran the 3rd fastest half marathon of the day.
A brilliant result for Sallie, earning her a place in 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championships … in New Zealand!
Squad Views
“She’s so modest and unassuming isn’t she?”
“From talking to her you wouldn’t know she was a really strong athlete”
Just some of the comments on Monday from her proud Swim Squad mates, who couldn’t resist discussing the race during rest intervals. Just the way Sallie would want! 😀
Coaches Perspective
From a coaches point of view, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a harder working and enthusiastic athlete.
Pushing on every swim session has seen her swim times drop and her swim confidence soar. Making a commitment to herself to improve her bike power and strength this year has reaped rewards. A patient approach to her run – including some work to improve ‘run robustness’ to overcome long-standing run injuries – resulted in the 3rd fastest run of the day.
I’ll say it again …
Sallie Holt is going to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
👏👏👏
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