After the success of a very big cycling event in Johor last month, Desaru Coast has become an even more popular hotspot for a holiday destination filled with fun for the whole family. In case you haven’t heard, Desaru Coast was chosen to host this year’s IRONMAN 70.3 series event! After 2 years of postponement due to the pandemic, the long anticipated inaugural multisport IRONMAN 70.3 series event is finally back!
Sports enthusiasts have been waiting for this opportunity for so long and they finally got to chance to put their skills and endurance to the test. For your information, the highly anticipated multisport event was only ever held in Langkawi which makes this the first time it’s ever held in Desaru Coast, Johor. Here’s what went down:
The IRONMAN 70.3 series event proved to be an overwhelming success, as the Desaru Coast Multisport Festival (DCMF) witnessed 2,062 participants over the weekend with 47.5% being Malaysians. The multisport festival weekend featured iconic endurance sports events by the IRONMAN Group which included the IRONMAN 70.3, 5150 Triathlon series, IRONKIDS and the SPRINT distance races.
Parents were overjoyed to see their children compete in the IRONKIDS event on Friday (22nd July) while the adults test their endurance in the 5150 Triathlon series the next day. The main IRONMAN 70.3 event on Sunday (24th July) was officiated by Menteri Besar of Johor, Datuk Onn Hafiz Bin Ghaz. A 17km stretch of immaculate coastline, complete with crystal-clear ocean waves and white sand beaches, lined the racecourse, where 1,475 athletes (including 26 teams) competed.
The IRONMAN 70.3 athletes started with a single-loop 1.9km swim, followed by a 90km ride on a two-loop bike course and finally finished off with a 21.1km shaded run to the finish line at the Westin Desaru Coast Resort. 21-year-Kenshin Mizushima crossed the line as the top overall male finisher with sub five-hour finish (4:18:22) and was elated after achieving his personal best.
“I have trained for several months for this event, and I am happy to reach this level of performance. I had expected a tough course, and I tried to conserve as much energy for the run. My aim is to do a sub-four hour for the World Championships in Finland next year,” he said.
While waiting for the athletes to come to the finish line, audience got to chill at the beach at the Westin Desaru Coast Resort, try out some delicious snacks at the food truck vendors where they can get a nice view of the athletes mounting and dismounting their bikes and there was plenty to check out at the EXPO hall where everyone got to see exhibitions and buy official IRONMAN merchandise.
The weather was perfectly sunny throughout the whole weekend with a little bit of rain on Sunday but that did not stop anyone from having a good time and that most certainly didn’t stop the athletes from reaching their goals. Overall it was a fun-filled weekend for the whole family and we’d like to congratulate to all athletes who managed to achieve their personal best.
For those who didn’t manage to complete the race, don’t worry folks you will get to try again next year and who knows, you might be able to compete in the world’s championships in the future!
Check out our video below to see exactly how things went down:
