Legendary 80-year-old completes gruelling 226km Ironman event after 16 hours

An 80-year-old man has finished the 226km Ironman Asia-Pacific event.

And to think I tripped over the treadmill this week.

George Hulse has done the unimaginable and finished the mammoth of a race in just over 16 hours.

Hulse kicked off the event with a 3.9km swim, which took him one hour, 30 minutes and 44 seconds to complete before he began cycling towards Port Douglas and back to Cairns.

He was on the bike for seven hours, 47 minutes and nine seconds before having an 11-minute break to catch his breath ahead of the gruelling race on foot.

Again, this man is 80.

Hulse completed the 42.2km marathon across six hours, 38 minutes and 49 seconds to thunderous applause at the finish line before jumping into a wheelchair.

People were absolutely blown away by the herculean effort.

One person said: "What a legend. Give that bloke the biggest medal and a standing ovation at the presentation ceremony. Honestly. What a remarkable man."

Another added: "There is no one quite like George. He has been an inspiration to others for decades."

Over the weekend, New Zealand's Braden Currie and Australia's Kylie Simpson triumphed as champions at the Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship by breaking records.

Currie finished the race with an incredible 7:50:11 time, which was 10 minutes ahead of Steve McKenna, who placed second.

Simpson finished the triathlon at 8:40:53, nearly 18 minutes ahead of Radka Kahlefeldt.

Penny Slater and Sarah Crowley finished third and fourth, respectively.

When speaking to 7News, Simpson revealed that for the first leg of the race, she just put her ‘head down’ and found her rhythm.

“I just got on the bike and just put my head down and got into a rhythm and just took as much time out of the girls as I could,” said Simpson.

“I knew I was chipping into them, I didn’t know that I was on course for the record so that’s a little bonus.

“Coming into T2 (bike-run transition) and all of us in that change tent together, that was a good moment to realise how close we were and I knew that they (Crowley and Kahlefeldt) can both run well, they’re both champions and I knew what I was up against.

“Sarah’s won here multiple times, she’s been on the podium at Kona, Radka’s been to the Olympics so I knew that I couldn’t let them get away so I had to put as much time into them as I could.”

Shortly after her win, Simpson took to Instagram to thank all her supporters.

“Thank you everyone for the support today out on the course and to my sponsors who make this possible. Asia Pacific Champion and 7min course record, more to come,” she penned.