Matt Burton hugs his son after winning the IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Cairns. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

For most of the last 30 years I have been at a lot of races in my capacity as a journalist, photographer and race announcer, but 2024 will go down as one of the most memorable, without a doubt. It marked my first Olympics as a journalist, which was certainly a highlight, but there were a lot of other notable events that made the year special. As we wrap up our 2024 recaps, I figured I would share some photos and stories that were particularly poignant for me. I’ll break the year up into three sections – this first story will look at the first half of the year, the second will focus on a busy summer, and the third will look back at a crazy-busy fall.

Here we go:

Clash Miami

Ben Kanute finishes the bike during T100 Miami. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Even race-director extraordinaire Andre Lapar had to admit that the Clash Miami weekend involved almost too much racing. There was a World Triathlon Americas Cup race, the T100 race, all the Clash events (sprint, kids, long-distance tri, etc.) and the Redline Relay bike race. I was on deck as the lead announcer for all the races other than the T100, but I kept myself busy that day with my camera, covering the event for Triathlon Magazine.

One of the highlights of the weekend was a great interview I did with American Olympic medalist Katie Zaferes, who was in the midst of a spirited bid to earn a spot on the competitive American Olympic team after becoming a mom in 2022. (I have no shots of the Americas Cup race – I was busy on the mic that day!) I also got to do a bunch of interviews for Credo Tri, including fun chats with Ben Kanute (hence the photo above.)

UCI Track Nations Cup

My son was part of the national cycling team for many years, so I’ve been shooting cycling events for a number of years. We were really lucky to have many of the world’s top cyclists competing in Milton, just 30 mins drive from my house, as they competed for valuable Olympic qualifying points. While the American team (pictured above), would end up sixth in Milton, they would take gold in Paris a few months later.

IRONMAN Lanzarote

Anne Haug on her way to breaking Paula Newby-Fraser’s course record at IRONMAN Lanzarote. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands just off the coast of Africa. I’ve been going to the island since 1998. This year was a special one for the IRONMAN, as Anne Haug put together one of the most incredible races I have ever seen. Haug’s 9:06:40 topped Newby-Fraser’s 1995 course record of 9:24:39. Haug ran a 2:49:08 marathon after completing one of the world’s toughest bike courses, finishing 14th overall. Only two men ran faster than she did on race day.

Rosie Wild. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

As amazing as Haug’s performance was that day, another highlight for me was getting to meet Rosie Wild. She raced in Lanzarote as a pro triathlete and qualified for Nice thanks to a fourth-place finish. Wild is the first woman to have passed the British Armed Forces gruelling Parachute Regiment’s selection test. The woman is literally a real-life version of GI Jane, and has proven to be every bit as tough as a triathlete. You can read my feature story on Wild here.

Photo supplied by Rosie Wild.

Escape from Alcatraz

Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

I am almost embarrassed to admit that despite having been in the sport for as long as I have, until last year I’d never been to one of the sport’s most iconic events. In addition to covering the T100 race, I got to support a couple of athletes I coach and take in the race. It truly is a bucket-list event.

IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Cairns

Matt Burton wins in Cairns. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Hannah Berry wins in Cairns. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

I’ll definitely get a “destination” story up on IRONMAN Cairns over the next little bit, but my second trip to the event offered another chance to check out the Great Barrier Reef, but also a chance to watch one of the year’s most inspiring races. I used the picture of Matt Burton hugging his son after his win in Cairns as the feature photo for this story because his was a truly incredible story.

Four months before, just months after winning IRONMAN Western Australia in 2023, Burton went in for surgery for a deep bone infection in his foot. As he was put under for a third surgery in February, Burton was told that he might wake up without a foot if they didn’t think they could clean out the infection.

Suffice it to say that the surgery was a success, and Burton bounced back. It wasn’t easy, though.

“Then it was the slow crawl back where every day was the PB,” he said after the race. “When you have 10 weeks off, you start from zero. You’ve got no fitness. But the beauty is muscle memory. Ohh. Muscle does remember, and it just took ten weeks to remember before I really started to feel a little bit more myself. And then I decided to come here (two Cairns) two weeks earlier and it was the best decision in my life.” 

You think?

Canadian National Track and Field Championships

Mohammed Ahmed on his way to the win in the 5000 m at the 2024 Track and Field Olympic Trials. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

While my first “serious” sport was tennis, I ran through university, so track has always been close to my heart. When I had the chance to shoot some of the nationals in Montreal at the end of June, I jumped at it. The highlight was watching Mo Ahmed run 13:10:99 to win the 5,000 m. It’s the fastest 5,000 m race I have ever watched in person. Ahmed would finish a heartbreaking fourth in the 10,000 m in Paris, and would fall in the qualifying rounds for the 5,000.

World Triathlon Para Series Montreal

Canadian Leanne Taylor. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

After shooting this event, the final Paralympic qualifier, I was truly regretting not having sought accreditation for the Paralympics in Paris last summer. While the day was very rainy, it was one of the most inspiring race days of the year for me.

The post Looking Back at 2024: Thoughts and Pictures from a Huge Year of Racing Part 1 first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Photos by Kevin Mackinnon

OK, things were buzzing for “ladies day” here in Taupo yesterday. It is hard to describe how much more intense, crowded and, well, buzzing Taupo was today as a roughly 3,200 men started their race in Lake Taupo. (Even the helicopter seemed to be getting in on the action, determined not to miss a second of the men’s race action.)

You can read a blow-by-blow account of today’s racing in Ryan Heisler’s race recap.

Here’s my take on the day’s action based on my view from behind the camera.

Today the waka delivered men from Ngāti Tūwharetoa and the haka ceremony once again set the stage perfectly, adding more to the unique experience and sense of community that this world championship has engendered all week.

Once we’d all been “welcomed” to the lake, it was time for the racing.

When it was time to get the racing started, once again the top seeds all lined themselves up to the left of the swim start, with defending champ Rico Bogen lining up furthest to the left.

Greg Harper, the son of former pro triathlete Dean Harper, led the men out of the water. He was about 12 seconds up on Aussie Josh Amberger and France’s Olympic bronze medalist Leo Bergere, but the pack with many of the pre-race favorites, including Hayden Wilde, Rico Bogen, Kyle Smith, Jelle Geens and Justus Nieschlag were all about 30 seconds apart.

It wasn’t long before a lead pack of eight had formed. What was surprising about the lead cyclists was that it was a bunch of short course specialists who were pushing the pace, including local hero Hayden Wilde …

… The man Wilde beat to the silver medal in Paris, Leo Bergere …

… and yet another Olympian, Jelle Geens.

Defending champion Rico Bogen was in the mix, but wasn’t making it look easy to stay with the leaders.

Surprisingly Taupo’s very own Kyle Smith wasn’t his usual aggressive self at the front of the bike. Turns out he’d had COVID last week, so was still recovering from that as he hit the race course today.

Another surprise was the impressive riding by 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Henri Schoeman, who stayed with the leaders the hard way. While the rest of the group remained pretty much bang on the legal distance (as gauged by the Race Ranger tech being used), according to IRONMAN’s Matt Lieto, who was with the lead group a lot more than I was, Schoeman was almost always about 20 m behind the wheel in front, dangling close to being dropped.

As often seems to be the case in tight races, Mathis Margirier, who was pushing the pace in the lead group for much of the ride, was the one who got a drafting penalty, effectively putting him out of contention because …

… By the 80 km point of the ride it was clear the winner was going to come from the lead group.

Wilhelm Hirsch was one of the athletes in the first chase group that was led, for most of the way, by Kristian Hogenhaug (who spent so much time at the front he would eventually get dropped by the group). Even if you weren’t with the leaders, you weren’t taking in any of the spectacular scenery along the route.

Once out on the run, Wilde surged clear. After the race Wilde admitted that the incredible crowd support made it really hard to slow down.

Jelle Geens said after the race that along the way someone in the crowd told him to “believe the Paris scenario” (Wilde cracked in the last 1,100 m of the run at the Olympics and was passed by Alex Yee.) Not long after he heard that, Wilde started to struggle ahead of him.

Meanwhile, Bergere quickly decided who couldn’t go with Wilde or Geens.

“I decided to run my own race and to try to have to the the best tempo,” the Frenchman said after the race.

Meanwhile, the race to see who would be the top German was being played out as Justus Nieschlag started to pull ahead of the defending champ …

… Rico Bogen. (In the end, Nieschlag would take fifth, with Bogen seventh.

Think this guy is happy?

“I’ve been in this sport for very long time and I actually never made the podium (at a world championship),” Geens said after the race. “I came fourth twice in short course, and now, in my first try and a middle distance and I got it.”

It might not be the last, either.

“Paris was my last short course race,” he said. “To be honest, the last year and a half was quite tough for me, mentally … So, I really want to move to middle distance and see what I can do there.”

I can let him know now – a lot.

That blazing intitial pace ended up being too much – in the end the “Paris scenario” repeated for Hayden Wilde, who truly gave it all to get across the line.

“It was brilliant,” he said of the day when being interviewed for one of New Zealand’s television networks. “I loved every moment … I gave it everything, but yeah, it’s been a long season and, you know, I put it out there. I wasn’t going to shy away from it and had a crack at it. I was not bad for my third time at this distance.”

“It seemed like every inch of the run course was covered with people supporting me,” Wilde continued. “It was hard to slow down. To have a world championship in Taupo is awesome. It’s so great for the country – everyone knows our sport right now. It was so cool to give it a crack in front of the home town.”

Another bronze medal to go along with the Paris Olympic one from earlier this year for Leo Bergere. This one came without quite as much pressure.

“In Paris I was putting a lot of pressure on myself, but I was also feeling that the whole country was expecting a medal from one of the members of the French Team,” he said after the race.

Bergere thanked the crowd for all the support after he crossed the line.

“New Zealand is such a beautiful country and people are so welcoming,” he said.

Kyle Smith thrilled the crowd with his fourth.

Ninth was more than enough to assure Gregory Barnaby of the top slot in the IRONMAN Pro Series. You can read our profile on the Italian below:

It was Olympic day on the podium at today’s 70.3 worlds. A sign of things to come?

The post The Intensity Dials Up in Taupo as the Men Take to the Course at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

All photos by Kevin Mackinnon

The energy here in Taupo for the first IRONMAN World Championship event in New Zealand has been pretty special, but you really got a feeling of how unique this race was going to be when the “waka,” which was made up of “wahine” (women), kicked off the opening ceremonies for today’s race.

Here’s how the folks at IRONMAN described it:

When the waka arrives on the beach, Ngāti Tūwharetoa wāhine will emulate the mahi (strength) of the tāne (men) and challenge the female athletes to push themselves beyond their normal boundaries. With their kahui maunga (chiefly mountains) at their backs, their moana (inland sea) at their feet and Aotearoa’s most significant awa to their side (Waikato River), they will uphold the traditions of their forefathers and mothers in a demonstration of mana whenua (custodianship) and aroha through a demonstration of Ahai (rakau/paddle moves), wero (challenge), and haka.

For a blow-by-blow recap of today’s race, make sure to check out Ryan Heisler’s excellent piece posted earlier:

Here’s a look at the day from my perspective behind the camera:

Triathlon fans who were near transition early got another glimpse of how the day was going to go based on defending champ Taylor Knibb’s mood. Pre-race nerves? Not here.

Knibb might have been laughing early, but once the horn went off, she was all business.

She was a bit behind heading into the water …

… But powered out to the lead over the first few hundred meters. “Good luck with your goggle choice,” she warned the men after the race, referring to her difficulties navigating the first turn buoy.

Lotte Wilms would lead the women out of the water …

… While Hannah Berry led the chase pack that included Kat Matthews. The Kiwi was 47 seconds behind Wilms coming out of Lake Taupo. After the race Matthews said that a good swim was critical for her success on the day.

Once out on the bike, there was simply no touching Knibb, who has dominated the bike at every long-distance race she’s entered this year. During the post-race press conference, Knibb said that she would have liked to have been able to get some splits so she would know “where I am” during the bike.

“Off the front,” Ashleigh Gentle said, generating a laugh from the crowd.

… And Imogen Simmonds were able to create their own tiny chase group, but still ended up almost five minutes behind Knibb into T2.

“I am going to make the bike work for me,” Simmonds said after the race. “90 km through the countryside was beautiful. I hope they got some good shots out on the course.”

(I’ll leave it to her to decide if I did.)

This shot of Nikki Bartlett would hopefully satisfy Simmonds.

The second chase group, that included speedy runners Ashleigh Gentle and Julie Derron (and is being led here by Paula Findlay) ended up over eight minutes behind starting the run.

Derron would charge out onto the run course.

“On the run I went for the podium, but the wheels came off,” she said after the race. (Keep going for proof of how much the “wheels came off.”)

After feeling that she’d been “snubbed” by Hayden Wilde at Thursday’s press conference when he predicted that either Julie Derron or Ashleigh Gentle would post the day’s fastest run split, it was Matthews who would move into second and put together the 2nd fastest run of the day. Her 1:15:34 split was almost a minute faster than Gentle, and …

… 38-seconds faster than Tamara Jewett, who had the second-fastest run of the day, which was enough to move her to ninth.

Hannah Berry and Laura Madsen run together early on in the run.

“There wasn’t a quiet moment on the run course,” Imogen Simmonds said after the race. “And, although advertised as flat, I think there was only 1 km of flat on the course.”

In the end, there was no touching Knibb, who even managed a stop at a port-o-potty on her way to a 75-second win.

When asked what it means to have won three 70.3 world titles on three different continents on three different courses, Knibb was her usual analytic self:

“I’m not sure how different they were,” she said at the press conference. “They were all wetsuit swims, with challenging bikes and not-flat runs. Thank you, IRONMAN, for giving us tough courses.”

Second at this championship last year, second at the IRONMAN World Championship in St. George in 2022, second at this year’s IRONMAN World Championship in Nice … but first in the IRONMAN Pro Series for Kat Matthews.

And, as usual, Matthews was all class as she celebrated the day of racing with Knibb at the finish line.

In a bit of a reversal from the T100 final in Dubai, it was Gentle who paced things perfectly to move her way to the podium, running her way from sixth in T2 to third.

“I did the first transition like it was an Olympic distance and paid for it,” Gentle said after the race. “I tried to pace (the run) a bit better, and felt a lot of support from the sidelines. This event has encapsulated the spirit of triathlon.”

Even though she moved down a spot from last year, Simmonds was thrilled with fourth.

“Beating the bib number (3) was always going to be tough,” she said after the race. “I am well chuffed (with fourth).”

Derron gave it all to get to the line in fifth.

Now the only question is: Can the men top this day of racing? It won’t be easy, but we look forward to seeing them try.

Stay tuned for more fun from Taupo tomorrow.

The post Ladies Day in Taupo: Recapping the Pro Women’s Race in Words and Pictures first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

They’re used to the full-distance IRONMAN race being the main professional draw here in Busselton, but this year things were focused on the 70.3. The penultimate event in the IRONMAN Pro Series, today’s half-distance tri attracted a surprisingly international and competitive field of athletes – some doing their best to pad their Pro Series standings, others looking to tune up before the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand in a couple of weeks. You can read our race recap in the link below – and after that check out our photo gallery from race day.

All photos by Kevin Mackinnon

_{They’re off – the men get started next to the Busselton Jetty.}

_{The women left five minutes later.}

_{Dimity-Lee Duke braves the choppy water and the unique swim course that has the athletes swim under the pier.}

_{Uber-biker Robert Kallin leads the group.}

_{Aussie Olympian Jake Birtwhistle was with the group early, but would eventually get dropped and hit T2 five minutes behind.}

_{New Zealand’s Teresa Adam, along with Pewag Teammate Lotte Wilms and Marta Sanchez would ride clear of the rest of the women’s field on the bike.}

_{Fellow Kiwi Hannah Berry would spend much of the ride in fourth.}

_{Maja Stage Nielsen was the highest ranked woman in the Pro Series coming into the race and was working hard to stay as close to the leaders as she could.}

_{Els Visser is coming back from a stress fracture that forced her to drop out of the race in Kona, but she’s still in the hunt for valuable IRONMAN Pro Series points.}

_{Gregory Barnaby led the men out onto the run course, determined to stay near the front of the race from start to finish.}

_{The tale of two hard bikes – Jamie Riddle, right, would surge to the front of the race and lead for much of the half marathon. Western Australia native Nick Thompson would fade badly on the run after coming off with the leaders and end up 15th.}

_{Aussie Olympian Jake Birtwhistle would run his way to fifth.}

_{There was no touching Marta Sanchez once she got onto the run course.}

_{Lotte Wilms would hang on for as long as she could in second …}

_{… but it was Anna Bergstom who would be the best on dry land, biking and running her way to second after trailing by over five minutes after the swim}

_{Germany’s Daniela Bleymehl made the trip to Western Australia to help with her overall Pro Series standing – she ended up eighth.}

_{A first IRONMAN 70.3 win …}

_{… and now first in the Pro Series standings heading into the final race of the season means Gregory Barnaby is almost guaranteed to be on the Series final podium.}

_{Marta Sanchez’s smile says it all.}

Anna Bergsten, Marta Sanchez and Lotte Wilms make up the podium.

_{Jamie Riddle, Gregory Barnaby and Marc Dubrick have some fun o the podium themselves.}

_{The advantage of crossing the line first is that you are for sure there when your fiancé crosses the line – Giorgia Priarone celebrates her 15th-place finish and Gregory Barnaby’s win.}

The post Photo Gallery: IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia first appeared on Slowtwitch News.