James wins Jailbreak Ultra in SA

Hi All,

In the absence of a blog, here is an update on my latest race exploits.

After a three week stint at rookie camp in Subic Bay in November I came back to South Africa feeling good and looking forward to some races as tri-season in SA started up. The first race of the season, a 2.2/100/25km Ultra tri held on 14 Dec was my first chance to test myself, and it went great. Read report below:

3, 2, WON! At Jailbreak Ultra for Cunnama

In his first real test of the season, James Cunnama started the JailBreak Ultra in Worcester in the winelands of South Africa not too sure where his form was and how he would perform. These questions were answered emphatically when Cunnama, improving on his 3rd and 2nd the previous two years, won the race by a massive 10min margin over 2nd place, Charl Keet.

Cunnama began the race at a controlled pace and gave some time to Charl Keet in the swim as he stayed back in the chasing group of 3 swimmers for the first lap. During the second 1.1km swim lap Cunnama moved off the front of the chase group and swam the second lap on his own. Coming out of the water about 1min30 behind race-leader, Charl Keet Cunnama moved quickly through transition and out onto the bike course.

In windy conditions Cunnama started at a comfortable pace and soon it was clear that his only competition on this day would be Keet, who held the lead for much of the cycle. However, about 80km into the 100km cycle leg Keet's early pace into the strong winds began to show and he slowed considerably. Cunnama, however seemed to just get stronger and flew by Keet for the lead before chasing down a team cyclist to be the first into transition.

Moving out onto the run it was a one-man show with Cunnama extending his lead to 10minutes over Keet and holding this until the finish line. Keet came in second, with Jean van Wyk from Cape Town rounding out the top 3.

Good reporting, huh? 48hours later I raced a sprint triahtlon in PE (Port Elizabeth) and won that too, feeling no ill-effects from the ultra race on the weekend. I guess rookie camp served me well...

Right now I am in the Drakensberg mountains visit my folks for Christmas before heading back to the eastern Cape for Ironman 70.3 South Africa on 18 January. With a stacked field including Chris McCormack, Tim Don, Fraser Cartmell and Raynard Tissink, this race promises to be a real challenge…

More news soon…