Home

Shark halts swimmers in Busselton 70.3 Half Ironman

Natalie Richards and Jocelyn McLennanThe West Australian
The swim leg runs alongside the Busselton Jetty.
Camera IconThe swim leg runs alongside the Busselton Jetty. Credit: File image/WA News

A shark sighting off the Busselton coast has stopped hundreds of swimmers from competing in the Ironman 70.3 this morning.

The individual swim leg of the half-distance triathlon was brought to an abrupt halt after a 2.5-metre shark was spotted by crews on the Surf Lifesaving helicopter about 8.25am.

Several swimmers were still in the water when the shark was seen to the east of the course, several hundred metres offshore.

The beach was closed and those still in the water were brought to shore.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW
VideoExperts promise it's a good sign of the health of the endangered grey nurse shark

Swimmers for 190 teams were told they would not be able to compete.

Triathlon WA executive director Peter Minchin it had yet to be decided how this would impact competitors’ eligibility for further events.

“I think most people are understanding that this decision has been made in the interests of their safety,” Mr Minchin said.

Team competitors went ahead with the cycle and run legs as scheduled.

VideoTuria Pitt crosses the finishing line at the Ironman World Championships in Kona

Queenslander Dan Wilson took line honours in a new race record of 3 hours 42 minutes 26 seconds breaking the old mark by 33 seconds set by Craig Alexander in 2016.

Wilson ran a sub 1hr 13m for the 21.1km run to win ahead of defending champion Alexander 1hr 26m behind with Rio Olympian Ryan Fisher third.

Wilson’s superior running strength saw him surge to the lead after the transition from the bike to open up a lead of 12 seconds after 3km of the run ahead Fisher and Alexander.

Wilson then threw down the gauntlet and increased his led to 1 minute 10 seconds at the half-way mark over Alexander who had opened up his own break of 1min 45secs to Fisher with Kiwi Mark Bowstead fourth leading the chasing pack.

WA athlete Katey Gibb broke through to win her first professional 70.3 Ironman title in 4 hours 17 minutes 31 seconds holding off a fast finishing Jacqueline Thistleton.

The 30 year-old Gibb held a narrow lead over Kerry Morris after the 90.1 km bike leg but had opened a lead of 1.22 by the 7km mark of the run leg.

Thistleton moved ahead of Morris after the half-way mark of the run and began to chase down Gibb but fell just short behind for her first podium as a professional with Morris third.

It was Gibb’s eighth start in the Busselton race having finished third for the last two years.

The 1.9km swim, 90.1km bike and 21.1km run is the largest event of its kind in the southern hemisphere with more than 2000 competitors in the age group and teams event joining the field of professionals in the popular south west holiday town.

The winners shared $33,000 in prize money.

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails