Defending IRONMAN World Champion Chelsea Sodaro put a mixed start to the season behind her at the PTO Tour Asian Open in Singapore last weekend, as the American took third place behind Ashleigh Gentle and Anne Haug.

The Kona winner, who hasn’t quite found the form this season that took her to that magnificent win on the Big Island last October, seemed as relieved as she was happy to finally get another solid result under her belt after withdrawing from her last two races.

With the biggest races of the season just around the corner for the American, Singapore will be a big confidence boost as she looks ahead to Kona and the IRONMAN World Championships in less than two months time.

“You never really know when you go out there”

After falling sick and not finishing her last race at Challenge Roth, Sodaro revealed that she had managed to get a good block of training done in the lead up to Singapore, but had still been unsure of how she would fare against a top tier field of competitors.

“To be totally honest I didn’t know what to expect, I got quite sick at my race two months ago in Challenge Roth and that took me a bit of time to figure out, but I have now had four solid weeks of training and I was optimistic.

“You never really know when you go out there and we have seen that these women are just absolutely incredible athletes and on any given day you really have to bring your A-game to compete with them.” 

Acknowledging that the season had been far from plain sailing before this result, the American said that some people had started to count her out, but remained adamant that she was only now coming into the prime of her career.

“I have had quite an up and down season and I have started to get legacy questions, with people telling me that I will always have that Kona win and I think this just shows that I am still here, still in my prime and really getting after it.

“I am really happy to come into some good form with championship season around the corner. I think I have had to reinvent myself a little bit this season and recommit to excellence and I am really happy I can take some hardware from this race back to my daughter at home.”