Jonny Brownlee completed the Olympic medal set when he added to his bronze (London) and silver (Rio) with a Gold medal in that memorable Mixed Relay Triathlon event in Tokyo – and now it is time to step up in distance at IRONMAN 70.3 Cascais this weekend.
This Sunday he makes his debut over the middle distance in Portugal. That would normally be gaining far more headlines than it is right now – had it not fallen on the same day as IRONMAN California!
The coastal resort town of Cascais first hosted this event in September 2017, and when the race was last held in 2019 it was won by Emma Pallant-Browne and Javier Gomez.
The race will start at the rather leisurely hour of 1000 local time (which is on the same time zone as the UK) for the Pro Men, with the Pro Women following three minutes later from Ribeira Beach.
There is no live streaming coverage for the race that we are aware of (the IRONMAN team will be taking their Facebook Watch streaming service to Sacramento), so that will make the consistently excellent IRONMAN Athlete Tracker app even more valuable.
Keep your eyes on the IRONMAN Portugal social media channels too, where hopefully there will be some further updates as the racing progresses.
IRONMAN 70.3 Cascais 2021: Who is racing?
While we don’t expect everyone to toe the line, there are more than 50 men and around 35 women on the Pro start lists.
PRO MEN
As we have consistently seen this year, the relative shortage of post-COVID races has ensured that most events which do take place are very competitive. That trend seems unlikely to end in Portugal. If Jonny Brownlee is to open his 70.3 account with a win, it will certainly not presented as a debut gift.
While Jonny has raced in non-drafting events before, including in last December’s Challenge Daytona, this will be his first over the 1.9km / 90km / 21.1km format. Somewhat different from his September month of Super League Triathlon racing!