IRONMAN continues to build momentum for its VR (virtual race) series. The latest event, IRONMAN VR3, which ran across last weekend, saw over 20,000 finishers. This was up on just over 16,000 finishers in the previous weekend’s IRONMAN VR2 event.
IRONMAN VR3
Featuring athletes from more than 129 nations and all 50 US states, the IRONMAN VR3 race began on Friday, April 17 at 18:00 GMT (14:00 ET). It required athletes to complete in three segments – a 1.5km run, 20km bike and 5km run – by the race close on Sunday, April 19 at 23:59 GMT (19:59 ET).
Competitors could complete the segments in any order and were not required to do the segments consecutively. Athletes could compete indoors or outdoors. There were 20,211 finishers out of 33,278 registered athletes.
(With 23,085 athletes registered for IRONMAN VR2, there was a total of 16,334 finishers.)
IRONMAN VR Pro Challenge
Four professional female and male athletes capped off the third edition of the IRONMAN VR Pro Challenge by taking to the virtual bike course and going head-to-head in a sprint distance race simulation. It was Lisa Norden of Sweden taking the top spot on the podium in a closely contested race. Jesper Svensson of Sweden took the win in the men’s virtual race.
IRONMAN VR3 by the numbers:
- Over 33,000 participants signed up for IRONMAN VR3.
- Over 67,000 people have joined the IRONMAN Virtual Club platform.
- Athletes participated from all 50 US states and 129 countries, regions and territories.
- For IRONMAN VR3, Judith Garrard (Lawrenceville, GA) was the oldest female participant at 74, while Maite Farin (Neustadt, Germany) was the youngest at 18
- Michael Ort (Medina, TN) was the oldest male participant at 81, while Jack Holman (Norfolk, UK) was the youngest at 18.
The United States led the way with over 5,000 athletes registered to race in IRONMAN VR3. Following the United States was the United Kingdom (over 1,500), Canada (nearly 1,000), Germany (over 800), and Australia (over 700). - Other nations represented range from Hong Kong, Fiji, Kenya and Iceland.
Athletes receive IRONMAN Virtual Club points based on the distance they complete with all finishers receiving a virtual badge.
www.ironmanvirtualclub.com
www.ironman.com
www.ironmanfoundation.org/ironaid
