OVER two years of hard work has paid off for Donald Brooks as he crossed the finish line and earned Ironman World Championship glory.

Kona, Hawaii was the location where he retained his title at the end of October, having achieved the same feat in Nice, France last year.

An overall time of eight hours, 34 minutes and 56 seconds saw the Teignmouth-based athlete win the 45-49 age group and speaking to just how impressive this is, his time would have won him the 40-44 age group and place on the podiums for numerous others.

This time breaks down as 52:20 minutes on the 2.4-mile swim, 4:35:51 on the 112-mile bike ride and then a marathon, 26.2 miles of running, in three hours and 48 seconds.

He offered up some history and context to the Mid-Devon Advertiser about this prestigious event.

“The Ironman World Championships are held in Kailua-Kona on the Bid Island of Hawaii, the birthplace of triathlon from back in 1978.

“Since then, it has been a Mecca for triathletes to try and achieve a qualification slot and test them self on the big island in the tough and challenging conditions. (30C+, 80% humidity and very windy with wind direction continually changing which almost creates a headwind for the whole race).

“Just to qualify is a big achievement as approximately 40 qualification slots are offered to the top performing athletes at Ironman events during the year, before the Championship Race. So to get one of these slots, you pretty much have to podium at an Ironman event in the year leading into the race.

“This creates a truly championship field of top-level athletes which is limited to approximately 2300 due to the space available on the pier for the transition area.”

All of this information emphasises the magnitude of Don’s feat, finishing alone sounds like a mammoth task and yet he was able to lead the way in his age group.

Also, Don wrote on Facebook about his experience over in Hawaii, “The relief coming down Palani, around Hot corner and the home straight along Ali’i drive to the finish straight where the family were cheering, was awesome.”

He continued, “It took a while to start feeling normal again, I had pushed my body to its limits.

“1st in my age group by over 23 minutes to Roberto who also came second to me in Nice last year, but the margin was only 17 seconds then!”

The local legend as he deserves to be known spoke of being “absolutely over the moon” and now, the “off-season has started”.

Few people could stay focused and dedicated to such a gruelling task and so this really is a major success story.