And The Nominees Are ... Chris Mccormack

The Age

Monday November 5, 2007

Jacquelin Magnay

SYDNEY'S Chris McCormack claimed the holy grail of the triathlon world when he finally won the Hawaiian Ironman this year after seven serious attempts.

McCormack had long dreamed of the moment, wanting to emulate the feat of Greg Welch, the man who introduced him to the sport and who won Hawaii in 1994. But McCormack also had wanted to acknowledge the part that others had played in his cherished desire - his good friend and training partner Sean Maroney, who died in an accident five years ago, and his mother Theresa, who died of cancer in 1999 - as he crossed the finish line first in Kona in October, tears streaming down his face.

"There was just a lot of built-up emotion. It was better than I dreamed it would be. Just the failings here, the difficulty of winning this race, it just all poured out," he said. "The last 10 kilometres was probably the hardest 10 kilometres of my life."

McCormack, 34, had beaten the mental travails of the Ironman - a 3.8-kilometre swim, a 180-kilometre bike ride and then a marathon, all conducted on the heat-radiating lava fields of Kona. McCormack finished in eight hours 15.31 minutes.

McCormack long had threatened to win and, for the past seven years, has been a race favourite. But every year, circumstances thwarted his ambition. He was leading for most of the 2002 race, but collapsed 15 kilometres from the finish. The next year, he walked the marathon course and finished in more than 10 hours. In 2005, he reeled in scores of athletes on the final run leg and finished sixth. Last year, his German rival, Normann Stadler, surprised him and McCormack had to be content with silver.

McCormack's father Ken, wife Emma-Jane and their children Tahlia and Sienna were there to help him celebrate and pick up the winner's cheque of $US110,000. -- JACQUELIN MAGNAY

© 2007 The Age

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