NICOLE Bann-Murray was the first Hastings female across the line yesterday in the Ironman Australia 70.3 Port Macquarie race.
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In a fantastic display of fitness, Bann-Murray managed to finish third in her 40-44 age division.
Despite the encouraging effort on the course the athlete ruled out any more major events for the year.
Instead she’s opting to take time out to rest.
“That’s pretty much it for me,” she said.
“I’ll do some small tris and some stuff with the tri club but that’s about it.”
Like many athletes, Bann Murray paid tribute to the volunteers for getting her through the race.
“It was fantastic conditions for it. There was only light winds and it wasn’t too hot,” she said.
“But the spectators and the volunteers were amazing, there were lots of them out.”
The Port Macquarie athlete finished in a time of five hours, 18 minutes and seven seconds.
She was fifth in her division out of the water before dropping another two places on the bike.
But Bann-Murray clawed them back on the run to finish in the top three.
“I wasn’t hoping for any time in particular,” she said.
“I was looking for a similar time to last year and I think I beat that by about eight minutes so I’m pretty happy.”