Rugby Sevens gun Ed Jenkins conquers half ironman at Western Sydney 70.3

He can no longer play Rugby Sevens at the highest level but Olympian Ed Jenkins now has a new list of sporting challenges to tackle.

Ed Jenkins at the end of his first ironman 70.3 at Penrith.

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Half marathon. Tick. Teams triathlon. Tick. 70.3 half ironman. Tick.

Olympian and former Australian Rugby Sevens captain Ed Jenkins has now completed the first three sporting challenges on a list he compiled when forced out of the game he loved due to shoulder injury.

His latest achievement came at the Western Sydney half ironman, a tough race involving a 1.9km swim, 90km cycle and 22km run leg.

Ed Jenkins at the end of his first ironman 70.3 at Penrith.

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Jenkins set himself the task of racing the event without training specifically for his first foray into endurance racing.

And so enamoured with the challenge is he, the Rio Olympics is now keen to test himself over a full distance ironman.

“I probably should have done more training,’’ said Jenkins, who still finished the race in around five hours and 15 minutes.

“The swim was fine, the bike great but the run, my legs just seized.

“I had to stop maybe 20 times in the run with cramps.’’

Australia's Ed Jenkins scoring at the Rio Olympics.

Jenkins said his next sport challenge will be a marathon which he will use as training to do a full ironman triathlon.

“They say the Cairns ironman is a nice race to do,’’ he said.

“But I will do a bit more training for that and get my transitions sorted.’’

Maxi Neumann won the elite mens race in 3hrs 47min 04sec with New Zealander Hannah Wells taking the women’s title in 4:07.37.

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