Aditya Choudhary, who went into training for the past six years, became World's youngest Ironman completing 70.3 triathlons in six hours and five minutes.
Aditya Choudhary, who went into training for the past six years, became World's youngest Ironman completing 70.3 triathlons in six hours and five minutes.
Ironman 70.3 also known as a Half Ironman is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC).
The minimum qualifying age for participating in Ironman 70.3 is 18 years and Aditya completed the task on his 18th birthday. Aditya had turned 18 on the day of the challenge which was held in Bahrain.
Talking in an exclusive interview with DNA Web, the young lad from Mumbai spoke about his training, his mentors and his inspiration.
On the whole experience and journey:
I decided upon this when I was 12 or 13, roughly six years ago. When I went to my sports coach for the first time, he is an orthopaedic surgeon, I encountered a person named Nayan Shah who did the Ironman and whose name is in the Limca Book of Records for being the first Indian male above 50 to do it. That's when I got the idea like if we can have the record for the oldest person, I should go for the record to be the youngest person.
Parent's an inspiration:
My dad is into marathons so both of us used to go together. On weekdays it used to be difficult, but on weekends I used to go with him and other days I used to work out at home.
Managing school and training:
During my 11th and 12th, in my last two years, the intensity of the training increased. I had to manage side by side.
In 12th, the training took a slight toll due to studies and during April, I got chickenpox, so I had to recover from it and get back to train for the last bit as I had roughly six to seven months for the event. In the last six months, it was the most rigorous part of the training.
About the two surgeries:
When I was a kid, I loved swimming. When I underwent my first surgery, that was for Adenoid, the doctor put a certain tube in my ear and I was forbidden from swimming.
Then later when I resumed swimming, that is when again, five years down the line, I had to undergo one more surgery wherein my Adenoid just regrew and they had to be removed and even the tonsils were also removed.
Then I joined judo but owing to my ENT issues, there were changes in my facial structure and that lead to dental problems. I got braces and then I had to even stop judo.
I, however, again picked up swimming and that is when I met Dr Mihir Patki. So along with swimming, I picked up cycling and running and that is how I got into tracks.
Future targets:
There are two targets for this summer, first is I want to target Everest basecamp and I want to go cycling in the Khardung La pass (highest mountain pass in the world).
The challenge to cycle over there is the low oxygen levels. I also want to adopt a Vegan lifestyle.
The 70.3 events:
Aditya completed the 1.9 km long swim in 43 min, the 90 km bike ride in two hours 57 mins and the 21.1 km run in two hours three mins. There was a 15 min changeover between the swimming, cycling and running event.
The "70.3" refers to the total distance covered in the triathlon in miles - 113.0 km covered in swimming, cycling and running segments.
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