Simon Cochrane sets new Ultraman Australia record

A Sunshine Coast athlete’s record at a gruelling endurance test, ending in a double marathon, has been smashed with this year’s winner completing it in less than 20 hours.

Winner of the 2023 Ultraman Australia, Simon Cochrane. Picture: Dave Gleeson/Sunny Coast Photos

New Zealand triathlete Simon Cochrane has blitzed the field in the Ultraman Australia event in Noosa, setting a new world record in the process.

The event is an annual three-day, 515km endurance race that is divided into four stages over three days, and each day has a 12 hour cut-off.

Day one consists of a 10km swim and a 140km bike ride, day two is a torturous 281.1km bike ride and the event concludes on day three with an 84.3km run.

Cochrane finished the event with a total time of 19:48:37, making him the first in the world to go sub 20, and beating the previous Ultraman Australia record by 1:32:27.

“I just got in the zone and dug deep, my support crew was amazing and I couldn’t have done it without them,” he said.

Ultraman Australia champion Simon Cochrane in action. Pictures: Facebook

The endurance sports coach said he had no plans of running sub 20 before the event started.

“A couple of the guys had put it out there that they were going to have a crack at sub 20 but I worked it out on paper and just thought nah you're dreaming,” he said.

“Sub 21 was doable and after day one I still had that mindset but after day two they put it to me and I worked it out in my head to figure I had the pace to give it a crack.

“They said if I could run sub 6.17 per km I’d get in under 20 hours.”

Kiels Mountain based Ultraman champion Richard Thompson had plans to obliterate his own course record which he set in 2017 with a sub-20 time this year but unfortunately had to withdraw after day one with a lung infection.

“I can’t describe the disappointment,” Thompson said.

“We had done everything right in preparing for this event and despite all the contingencies, bronchitis wasn’t considered.

“For it to be the first race I have not finished in 20 years is hard to come to grips with at the moment.”

Despite being unable to finish Thompson said he was proud to have seen the record broken.

“I am really happy to see Sub 20 achieved,” he said.

“We believed it was possible and while of course I would have loved to have done it myself, I’m proud of Simon and his team for putting down three great days of racing.”