By JARROD POTTER
FROM the golf links to the world’s toughest race, Cranbourne Ironman Levi Maxwell has pushed his body to the limit and beyond.
Maxwell, 25, swapped the clubs for a road bike and pursued his newly found passion all the way to Hawaii for the Kona Ironman World Championships.
Just finishing the Kona Ironman World Championships – a 3.8 kilometre swim, 180km ride and a marathon-length 42km run – is deserving of immense congratulation, but Maxwell went one step better as he crossed the line in 8.52 hours to win his Male 25-29 category and secure his billing as one of the top ironman athletes on the planet.
He had to do it the hard way – fighting back from 34th after the one-hour swim leg before powering past his opponents in the bike (4.52 hours) and marathon run (2.54 hours) to take the division win and hear the phrase every ironman craves – “Levi, you are an Ironman World Champion”.
“To be honest I didn’t even look at the time nor did I care as each race is different, so you can’t really compare the times,” Maxwell said.
“But crossing the line knowing I had achieved my dream of becoming an Ironman Age Group World Champion was unbelievable, I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it.
“It’s a feeling you can’t describe but definitely a moment I will cherish forever – I made a lot of sacrifices to get to the World Championships and had a lot of support to make it happen, so getting the result and making everyone proud was well worth it.
“Thanks to everyone who supported me, you know who you are and I couldn’t have done it without you.”
His strategy was to power through cycling and running disciplines and catch up any lost time in the water, as swimming is the craft he’s still developing.
“Every triathlete has a stronger and weaker leg – for me swimming is my weakest leg by far – I only started competitive swimming at the age of 19 when I started triathlon so I have improved a lot but still have a long way to go,” Maxwell said.
“The run is my strongest leg and this showed in Kona as I ran the fastest amateur run split of the day.”
“That was my plan from the start as I know I just don’t have the swim speed to get out of the water with some of the stronger swimmers yet, so I expected to be back in the field after the swim and to make up ground during the bike, but still leave some gas in the tank to hunt during the run.
“It was a little surprising that I was in second place off the bike which made the run very enjoyable for me.”
His time earned him 26th place overall in the famous Hawaiian Ironman race out of the 1,985 that finished.
He earned his ticket to Kona after winning his age group at the Asia-Pacific Melbourne Ironman, setting a new age group course record, giving Maxwell plenty of confidence heading into the biggest race of the year.
His success in Ironman has come as quickly, with Maxwell only competing in his first Ironman race-length in December 2012.
The Enduranceteam coach qualifies for next year’s Kona World Championships and he hopes to target the age group title again and hopefully push further up the overall rankings.
