Qwik Kiwi: You have had a big year taking out second place at Ultraman Canada. What events did you do to qualify for Kona?
Arnaud Selukov: I started racing 2018 at IMNZ, where I took second in 45/49 in 9:25.
Then I raced in Roth in 9:00:37 That is still haunting me and two weeks after I was runner up at the ITU long course WC in Denmark.
QK: You have raced at Kona a few times now. How many times have you been here?
AS: This is going to me my seventh time here in Kona.
QK: Tell me about what you consider to be your best Ironman race experience.
AS: Here in Kona it was 2012 , my first time here. I didn’t know what to expect and went 9:33 finishing 151 overall and 11th in AG.
My best Ironman race was Vichy 2016 where i went 9:02 winning by I think 16 seconds and I ran a personal best of 3:09.
My best Iron distance race was certainly Roth 2016 where I went 8:56.
QK: Your business is 859 Coaching, named after when you went sub-9 at Ironman. How many Ironman or Challenge events have you finished?
AS: I started and finished 33 full distance.
I won one – the Evergreen 228
Went sub 9 twice and sub 10 hours 21 times.
QK: What are your goals and what are you hoping to achieve out there on the Queen K this weekend?
AS: Enjoying myself first. I did damage my achilles when restarting my training too hard after Ultra520K Canada and I am nowhere in term of fitness of where I was in July so I’ll go for it in the swim then control myself on the bike and pray for the run.
I can’t really perform here with my high sweating rate of 3.3 litres/hour, so Kona is never going to be the race where I can expect a great result, but I keep coming back because… well it is Kona and anyone that has been there will know the feeling. I’d say 10:15 would make me happy considering that I can just jog at the moment and sub 10 a miracle.
The positive point being that the injury is I believe on the mend and my dietary choice (being plant based) is helping me in the healing process and keeping the race weight even if I have done minimal training in the past four weeks.
Arnaud is the head coach of 859 Coaching
He appreciates the support of the Cupcake Cartel sponsors:
- Boco Gear
- Roka
- Shimano
- ISM Seats
- Infinit Nutrition Australia
- Camino Apparel
- PRO Cycling Components
- Stages Power Meters
- Quintana Roo Triathlon Bikes
- Linden & True Coffee
Follow Arno and 859 Coaching here:
- www.859coaching.com (website)
- @859Coaching (Facebook)
- @859coaching (Instagram)
- @arnaud selukov (Strava)
Get more of the Pre-Kona series of Qwik Interview with other top level athletes (including Braden Currie, Callum Millward, Melanie Burke amongst others) here: