Snooker star Ian Burns took time out from his career on the baize tables to try his hand at triathlon last year.
And now the Preston potter – who used to fear the water and didn’t even own a bike when he decided to take on the Bolton IRONMAN 70.3 – is inspiring 2023 World Snooker champion Luca Brecel.
Belgian Brecel has set his sights on completing a full triathlon over the next few years, and sought out Burns for advice via a string of text messages.
Brecel bitten by triathlon bug
Burns told the Express: “He says he’s hoping to do the 70.3 next year and then go for the full.
“He said he was concentrating on the run and the bike at the minute and hasn’t even thought about swimming yet, which is fair enough. The swimming will soon come to him. I’ve told him not to rush into that.
“He’s got the bug that I had. We follow each other on Strava and he’s always out on his bike or running, so he’s clearly putting the time in. It would be great to see him do it. If Luca did it, I think you’d see a few other players go down that route.”
Burns has been playing professional snooker since 2012 but fancied something different when he took on, and completed, the Bolton Ironman 70.3 last year.
It started with a swim
He said: “It all started from taking my daughter to swimming lessons. She can swim really well and has no problems going under the water, but that’s something I’d always struggled with.
“I’d panic, I didn’t like it at all. For that reason, I’d never learnt to swim! I decided I would go and have lessons. I was already a pretty decent runner but I didn’t own a bike.
“Then I saw an advert for the Bolton Ironman 70.3. I thought, ‘I can run, I can now swim and I know how to ride a bike’. There and then, I entered it. I had about 10 months to train for it. I got a triathlon coach and bought a bike.
“Where I go and swim, it’s basically an old quarry. It’s about 30m deep. The first time I went in that, I had a huge panic attack. All the thoughts came in that I was never going to be able to do it.
“You put your face in the water and it’s freezing. Instead of seeing that nice line at the bottom of a pool, it’s just darkness, there’s nothing there. You get a bit disorientated but after a few sessions, you end up staying in a bit longer, swimming a bit further.
“Like anything, you just adapt and get used to it. Now, I feel I could swim for hours. I got really fit doing it but enjoyed it as well. It became addictive. To go from not being able to swim just a few months before, to doing the Ironman, I was really pleased.”
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