Luke McKenzie Withdraws From Ironman World Championship

Australia’s Luke McKenzie announced via his website today that he will not be competing in this year’s Ironman World Championship race.

“I have withdrawn from the Ironman World Championships here in Kona,” McKenzie wrote. “It has been a gut wrenching decision but after a few days of deliberation I think I have made a wise decision?!”

McKenzie goes on to explain that he will not be racing largely due to an injury he suffered at the Ironman 70.3 Cancun race back on Sept. 19.

“I have been battling an SI joint issue since I had a mechanical mishap at the Cancun Ironman 70.3 a few weeks ago,” he explained. “The initial incident occurred when I hit a clump of dried concrete on the road at full speed and my seat bolt snapped from the forward pressure I had on it and caused my saddle to rock back and forward through most of the bike leg. I ran with a little pain during the run of that race but just put it down to ‘tightness’ from the foreign position. I spent my first few days in Kona treating with massage and it appeared to be healing fine.”

Although McKenzie appeared to look healthy on a bike ride we followed him on back on Monday, October 4, he says the pain has come back to a point he will not be comfortable racing.

“After some hard sessions around the weekend of the 25th and 26th I starting to see some signs of pain again and scaled back my training and focused on treating it, but unfortunately on Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th I was literally bed ridden because my lower back was killing me so much.”

Check back as we continue to keep you updated on McKenzie’s injury.