South African Olympic triathlete Jamie Riddle is recovering and reflecting on his debut Cairns Ironman, only two weeks after a career best performance in the San Francisco T100 Triathlon, writes MARK LEMKE.
The 24-year-old put on a courageous display in Australia, having to dig deep into his reserves to eventually finish in fourth place in Cairns, in 8hr 15sec, which was 10 minutes behind winner Matthew Marquardt (USA) who clocked 7:50:41 for the 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42km run.
This is despite ‘hitting the wall’ 150km into the bike ride, causing ‘the lights to go out’. This worrying moment led to a ten-minute loss of time and an early race retirement looking likely. Despite this adversity, Riddle pushed through with the goal of completing a lap of the run before retiring from the race. However, what followed was inspirational as Riddle not only completed the final 30km on the bike, but ran a standard marathon distance to complete the Ironman in fourth place.
Riddle had started strongly, finishing the swim with a ten-second lead heading towards the bikes transition area. Riddle continued to impress on two wheels before being overcome by fatigue at the 150km mark. The Gqeberha athlete shared his experience of the event via his Instagram under a telling image of him in a wheelchair at the finish line.
“I came to win this race, and I put it all on the line as always. The high risk equals high rewards, unfortunately, I faced the latter. I do not know what happened around 150km on the bike, but the lights went out with 30km left.
“In that moment, I decided to throw in the towel, but I wanted to pay my respects to the crowd and complete a lap of the run. In that run, I found the will to fight. I found myself in third with a few km to go before my body said no again and this time, I was completely empty,” he shared on Instagram.
As part of Team SA at the Paris Olympics, he finished 25th in the men’s triathlon, followed by a fifth place in the South African 2025 Ironman and then a DNF at the 2025 Africa Triathlon Championships, which came too soon after the Ironman effort. He then went to San Francisco and placed fifth in elite company, before this dramatic Cairns experience.
Riddle also explained what lies ahead: “Ironman is extremely difficult and right now, I do not feel like doing one again. However, something within me tells me that will not be the case and I will be back.
“I will have more to say as perspective sets in, but fourth place amongst incredible athletes fills me with pride and the effort I put truly makes me proud.”
The Triathlon Multisport World Championship and the next Ironman event is scheduled for 29 June, and the next Triathlon World Championship Series event will take place on 12 July. It is unclear when Riddle will return to action, but it is certain that the South African star will be back and continue to shine on the world stage.
Photo: Getty Images
