LAPU-LAPU CITY—World champion Craig Alexander has raced all over the globe and won most of them. He tries to add the Cobra Energy Drink Ironman 70.3 Philippines to his long list of achievements today.
The celebrated Alexander will headline one of the toughest assembly of professional competitors in years along with defending champion Brent McMahon and three-time winner Pete Jacobs in the country’s toughest swim-bike-run event set in this history-rich tourist haven off the coast of Cebu.
“This is as good a lineup as you can get, much like the world championships,” said Alexander, whose string of success includes 27 consecutive Ironman 70.3 victories around the world.
Dubbed “Alexander the Great,” the Australian is a three-time full Ironman world champion who captured the 70.3 world title twice. He won the world championship of the full and half Ironman in the same year in 2011. Though already 42, Alexander hasn’t slowed down a bit with a sterling 70.3 victory in Geelong, Australia ,early this year.
“The races are becoming quicker and quicker. These young guys, they’re just taking it to another level. I have to do the swim, bike, run faster to even win these races now,” said Alexander.
McMahon, who has a shorter left leg, obviously belongs to this class Alexander has been talking about, having won three races last year, including the Philippine edition now being held here for the fourth straight time and backed by Ford Philippines, Summit Water, 2Go Express, Asics, Gatorade, Alaska, Timex, Globe, Safeguard, TYR and Brew Kettle.
The two-time Canadian Olympian recently ruled the 2015 Ironman Arizona and holds the course record with the fastest ever debut time of seven hours and 55 seconds.
As for Jacobs, Cobra Ironman champion for three consecutive years back in 2012, the Australian is using the event as springboard for a bigger race—the 2015 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
The women’s pro competition seems a cinch for Swiss Caroline Steffen who has ruled the 1.9-km swim, 90-km bike and 21-km run test of grit and fortitude in the Philippines the past three years.