Dimity-Lee Duke provides the early drawing power to IRONMAN’s much-awaited return to Davao next month with the multi-titled Australian all geared up for another crack at IM 70.3 pro glory at the posh Azuela Cove.
Duke, who dominated the country’s top 5150 races before the pandemic, placed third when the premier city in the south first hosted the highly popular endurance race in 2018, which Czech Radka Kahlefeldt ruled via an 11-minute romp over Naomi Washizu of Japan.
Kahlefeldt also topped the 2019 IM 70.3 Davao edition with Duke settling for fourth.
But the 39-year-old seasoned campaigner, who trains and hones up in Phuket, Thailand, is eager and ready to go for the jugular in the March 26 event, the only 1.9k swim-90k bike-21k run distance pro race offered in this year’s series of triathlon races under The IRONMAN Group/Sunrise Events, Inc. banner.
Listup is ongoing. For details, log on to ironman.com/im703-davao-philippines-athletes.
Spicing up the IM 70.3 Davao is the Girls’ Run on March 24 and the IronKids on March 25.
Also in the early women’s pro roster are compatriot Sarah Crowley and Lottie Lucas of United Arab Emirates. Crowley, who turned 40 last Feb. 4, topped the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships and finished third in the IRONMAN World Championship, both in 2017.
She matched her third-place effort in the world tilt in 2019.
Lucas, meanwhile, packs a lot of promise after the 30-year-old Dubai-based runner marked her first pro race with a third-place finish in IRONMAN Dubai in March last year.
But a host of others are also expected to join the hunt in the blue-ribbon event, sponsored by Alveo and backed by Lanang, Davao City, Davao del Sur, Active, Breitling, Fulgaz, Gatorade, Hyperice, Qatar Airways, ROKA, Santini, Vinfast and Wahoo, which will also serve as a qualifying race to the World Championship in Finland on Aug. 26-27, 2023.