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Will Clarke secures Hawaii qualification with a second place and sub 8 hours finish in KMD Ironman Copenhagen

BMC-Etixx p/b Uplace athlete Will Clarke finished second in Ironman Copenhagen today in a phenomenal time of 7:59:31. A performance that puts Will Clarke in the history books as the first ever British athlete to go sub 8 hours in an Ironman race. Swedish athlete Patrick Nilsson took the victory in an impressive 7:49:19 and Fabio Carvalho (BRA; 8:07:10) completed the pro men’s podium.

Sub 8 hours

In the last qualification race for Kona, Will thus managed to bring home the result he wanted. Will started of well in a foggy Copenhagen, wrapping up the swim (00:47:46) in the lead group of seven. The BMC-Etixx athlete exited the water in 3th place and thanks to a fast transition was able to jump on his bike in first place. In the bike leg, Will initially settled into the lead group that included Raelert, Amorelli, Casadei, Carvalho and Nilsson. After 60K into the bike, Clarke decided to ride his own pace and dropped back together with Casadei. Will Clarke (bike: 4:24:33) entered T2 with a deficit of 10’ on race leader Nilsson and 8’ back on Raelert in third. Will started the run in fifth. But Will brought his running legs to Copenhagen and started his chase for the podium spots. Just over halfway Will had brought the deficit back to 1’ from the podium places. From that point, second place was Will’s to take. Nilsson was outstanding today, but Clarke finished strong and crossed the finish line under 8 hours in a superb time of 7:59:31 (run: 2:43:16).

Perfectly executed race

Will Clarke was buzzing after the race: “It was an amazing day in Copenhagen, I got second place, qualified for the World Championship in Kona and went sub 8 hours. It really was a perfectly executed race today, I am really happy with my race and how I could put together this performance. It was a crucial time, I needed to be on the podium today to qualify for Kona, we did it, and to do so in this manner feels really special. We got so much to go for in Kona now. I am really delighted to put a race like this together, it is a big confidence booster ahead of Kona. Today also really shows I am good at Ironman, it really is my thing and I look forward to the next races. I also want to say a special thanks to everyone, especially my family, my support crew and BMC-Etixx Pro Triathlon Team powered by Uplace. I am so so happy.”

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