Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 54, January 2014 | Page 14

Feature

Bring it Home,
Fresh from finishing fourth in the prestigious Ironman World
Champs in Hawaii, South Africa’s James Cunnama has set his
sights on winning in Kona. – BY SEAN FALCONER

aving finished second in Ironman
Austria and sixth in Ironman SA in 2009,
James Cunnama qualified for the Ironman
World Champs in Kona for the first time, but
he knew he was not experienced enough to
race hard in Hawaii. Instead he treated it as
a recce to test his strengths on the course.
“It turns out I was weak everywhere! So I
promised myself I wouldn’t go back until I
was properly prepared.” After a few near
misses, he returned in 2013 and finished
fourth, the highest ever placing by a South
African in Kona. However, his great showing
caught the media totally unaware, despite
the fact that he set only the 19th ever
sub-8:00 Ironman time when he won the
Challenge Roth in Germany in 2012.
“I was barely on the media radar, despite
my sub-eight and winning a few races
in the lead-up to Kona. I was the lowest
qualifier, but I had planned it that way,
by cherry-picking races and doing just
enough to get in – the top 50 in the world
get selected, but the World Champ goes
automatically, so I knew 51st place was
enough. I was considered a dark horse,
because I had not raced well in Kona
before.” However, after a solid swim and
leading the bike leg for a while, James
overcame stomach cramps late in the run
leg to overtake two runners in the last few
kays and clinch fourth in 8:21:46. “It’s a
little frustrating being one off the podium,
but just four years ago I got absolutely
annihilated, finishing 82nd behind most of
the girls, so I think I proved something to
myself!”

EARLY STARTER
Born in Pietermaritzburg to parents who
regularly competed in the Comrades and
Dusi, James was waking early for training
runs from a young age, often running
with his mother’s ‘Pukers’ training group,
and at 16 he was regularly winning the
junior category in local races up to the
half marathon distance. In 2002 he
moved to Port Elizabeth to study Human
Movement Science, and at the same time
turned his attention to middle-distance
track in order to improve his speed over
all distances. Then in 2004 James worked
as a race volunteer at the first SpecSavers Half Ironman, which allowed him
to drive around the route and get a great
perspective of the race.

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The following year the full Ironman came
to town and the triathlon bug bit still
deeper. James did his first Ironman SA
in 2007, finishing 21st, and the following
year he finished 10th as well as sixth in
the Ironman 70.3 SA, then took a chance
and wrote what he describes as a cocky
e-mail to Team TBB-Tri-Cozumel, telling
them he planned to win the Ironman
World Champs someday. “Six hours later
I got an invite to their Philippines training
camp, so I scraped together a few pennies
and went. I did enough to earn a small
contract for 2009, which meant I could
live the dream and turn fulltime pro.” That
year he was sixth at Ironman SA and
second at Ironman Austria, and since then
he has featured regularly on the podium
at Ironman SA and Ironman 70.3 SA, as
well as various Ironman events and other
triathlons around the world.

IMPRESSIVE PARTNERSHIP
These days James lives half the year in
Stellenbosch and spends the rest of the
year between Europe and the USA. He is
one half of the unofficial fastest triathlon
couple in the world with Brit Jody Swallow,
a 2004 Olympian and current Ironman
70.3 World Champion. They have been
together for two years and travel and race
together as much as possible.
Images: Greg Beadle & Courtesy James Cunnama

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“We train at different speeds and
intensities, so often train separately – she
actually trains harder than me – but we
do about 50% of our races together,”
says James