Why David McNamee is Britain’s best male IRONMAN athlete. Statistically.

In 2016 Joe Skipper became the first British athlete to break the eight-hour mark for the iron-distance at Challenge Roth.

Later in the year, Will Clarke also joined that club with a 7:59:31 finish at IRONMAN Copenhagen.

To date, David McNamee has a fastest IRONMAN time of ‘only’ 8:28:05. That said… right now, he still deserves to be regarded as Great Britain’s best male IRONMAN athlete.

On Sunday David will be racing IRONMAN South Africa in Port Elizabeth, the African Championship, against a strong international field – as well as fellow British Pro athletes Joe Skipper and Harry Wiltshire.

So, why has David – in my eyes, statistically – earned top spot? Quite simple – no other British athlete has, to date, beaten him in an IRONMAN. And this will be his sixth IRONMAN start.

David McNamee – IRONMAN Career

• IRONMAN South Africa 2015: 7th place. First Brit Pro (Fraser Cartmell and Craig Twigg also raced)
• IRONMAN UK 2015: Winner (ahead of Fraser Cartmell and Joe Skipper)
• IRONMAN World Champs 2015: 11th overall, first Brit finisher (Joe Skipper 13th, Tim Don 15th)
• IRONMAN Lanzarote 2016: 3rd overall, first Brit finisher
• IRONMAN World Champs 2016: 13th overall, first Brit finisher, fastest ever British time at Kona.

So, while Joe Skipper is “ready to destroy myself on Sunday” – for now at least, perhaps David should be the favourite to be the first Brit across the line on Sunday at Hobie beach?

Let the fun begin!