Joe Skipper showed his potential and class once again at Ironman Florida, racing his way to 10th overall against a very strong international field. Skipper, who seems to race without fear over the iron-distance, completed in 8:17:27 in a race that was won by Vincent Del Corral in 7:53:12 and featured another Ironman-bike record by Andrew Starykowicz (2nd 7:55:22) who covered the 112 miles in 4:02:17.

The women’s race was won by Yvonne Van Vlerken, who covered the race distance quickest in a time of 8:43:07, beating Ashley Clifford and Erika Csomor into 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Also in action was Any Forshaw and Nico Munoz Ward. Find out how they all got on.

Ironman Florida has become quite an important (and fast) fixture on the Ironman calendar. An early season, US based race that allows the pros to potentially gather P-2000 and validate their Ironman entries early on in the road to Kona. Thus it attracted one of the biggest elite fields you are likely to see in any race on the circuit.

Internationally, attention will be focused once again on the super-fast bike record by Andrew Starykowicz and the subsequent running down of him by the eventual victor Del Corral. Starykowicz bike leg turned traditional iron-racing upside down, with a near 20 minute gap on the run, he just had to hang on for the victory but it wasn’t to be. Del Corral had paced the race brilliantly and had one of the quickest run legs in him this year.

British interest is highlighted by the performance of Joe Skipper, who was biking beautifully and was in 4th place at one point, before getting caught up in a super-fast run race and coming 10th. He really is a talent at this distance.

Joe reflected afterwards on Twitter:

thanks for all the messages I really appreciate it. Happy with 8 hours 17 despite a puncture and a 4 minute drafting penalty!

Skipper would subsequently voice his frustration with the Ironman series and the amount received by professionals under the payment structure, indicating that this would be his last Ironman race and instead, the young talent would focus on Challenge, Rev3 and independent races as a professional.

Amy Forshaw withdrew on the swim having suffered cramps. Nico Munoz Ward was also a DNF having pulled out early on in the run after having a bad day at the office with no energy left for the last leg.