Trevor Foley may rightly have made many of the headlines by winning the men’s race at IRONMAN New Zealand but Pierre Le Corre couldn’t have impressed much more in second place.
The Frenchman was fourth on home soil at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and this was his first foray into full-distance racing.
And what an impact he made – first out of the water before staying in contention on the bike to then unleash a 2:36:18 marathon that moved him up to second place, less than two minutes behind Foley.
It means he booked his Kona spot at the very first attempt – and all on the back of just two weeks of “specific” IRONMAN training!
Controlled display
Speaking on the live broadcast soon after crossing the finish line, he said: “I thought it was a bit hard at the end but during the race it was ok – it’s much more controlled than Olympic-distance racing.
“In the swimming I was really slowing down and even on the bike it was not like really hard. I was really controlling my pace on the run – today I had a plan and I just stayed focussed on this.
“I’m really pleased to have done what I did. I’ve only done two weeks specific training for IRONMAN but I did a 70.3 race in January [when he was second at Challenge Sir Bani Yas] so I was quite surprised to not be too far from the leaders.”
And it sounds like he has every intention of taking up that Kona invite, adding: “Definitely I will try to go to Kona. I’m qualified now so I hope I will be injury free and in good health and try to do a good race there.”
‘We’ll see what comes next’
And later on Instagram he posted: “I am an IRONMAN 🤯
“Very happy to have finished my first Ironman today… and even more surprised to finish 2nd 🥈
“I’m especially happy that I managed to execute the strategy I had in mind: sticking to the planned watts on the bike and keeping a controlled pace on the run, especially during the first laps. Looks like the plan worked pretty well!
“I realize how lucky I am to be able to perform on my first full distance 🤞🏼
“A performance like this is also a great opportunity to thank all the people who support me every day in this crazy sport.
“A special thought for the team back in Montpellier: @bertrandbillard, @glen_coaching and the whole crew 👩🍳👨🍳
“Thanks as well to @jellegeens for sharing a few sessions during this short Ironman preparation.
“Big thanks to @laurajanedennis for her valuable help during the training camp on the Gold Coast.
“And thank you to @samosborne7 for hosting us in New Zealand, we couldn’t have asked for a better place to prepare for this race.
“Now time to recover… and we’ll see what comes next.”
