Faris Al-Sultan walks away
German Faris Al-Sultan had planned to race Kona again this year, but plagued by injuries and disappointments the 2005 Ironman World Champion decided to stop. He announced that tough decision right after Ironman Texas in an interview with Bob Babbitt. Early on in the bike segment of that Texas race he felt pain in his ham strings and glutes but decided to ride out the 180km section, but did not start the run and that made him decide to close out his illustrious career sooner than planned. He will do a few short races this summer and then focus on his family.
The budgie smuggler wearing German did his first Ironman in 1997, raced in countless long distance races and finished 9 times in the Top 10 in Kona. He won in 2005 as we mentioned earlier, he finished 3rd in 2004 and 2006, was 5th in 2012, 7th in 2003 and 10th in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013.
"You know, in my career I had the classical buildup and you learn how this game works and then I had these 3 magic years in 04, 05 and 06 and then I kind of had a low and worked myself out of that low. It wasn't magic anymore but I still had good results and I won races. But yesterday I reached a point where I again am struggling with sort of an injury and the last 2 years I was just dealing more with the injuries than actually training," said Al-Sultan to Bob Babbitt. "And I reached a point where I am no longer ready to do that for the kind of results I am probably able to get."
In May of 2013 the very well liked German won Ironman Lanzarote and that looks to be his final big victory, but all along during his career he has won the hearts of fans wherever he showed up and that is likely true moving forward too.
"If you are still capable of being great then it is in my opinion probably worth going through everything," added Al-Sultan."But if you are mentally no longer there to really be there 100% then it is hard. Yesterday I realized that I had so many bad races and I can't stand having one more bad race. … The thought of running a marathon was frightening and that is the point where I said – ok, now it is the time to leave that."
The original interview of Faris Al-Sultan with Bob Babbitt can be found right here.
