Reigning IRONMAN® World Champion, Jan Frodeno has confirmed his withdrawal from the Standard Bank IRONMAN® African Championship on 10 April 2016 due to a grade 2 calf muscle tear.





Frodeno sustained the injury in Australia while training for the event and has over the past four weeks undergone intensive rehabilitation in an attempt to be ready to start the Standard Bank IRONMAN African Championship. Due to the nature of the injury however, Frodeno has been unable to run for four weeks with the probability of being able to run a full marathon in less than three weeks becoming increasingly unlikely. Unfortunately, the injury has not healed as quickly as hoped which prompted Frodeno to make the tough decision to withdraw.





"Unfortunately my optimism didn’t quite get me to the line this time. I was really hoping to strengthen my calf enough to face the IRONMAN African Championship, but the reality is that I would have to go into the race, knowing I would have to walk portions of it. That’s not my style and I don’t want to disrespect the race, fellow racers and of course fans by simply showing up to punch a ticket [qualify for the IRONMAN World Championship], rather than at least give it a good shot," said Frodeno.





Frodeno’s withdrawal throws the men’s professional field wide open. James Cunnama, Matt Trautman and Kyle Buckingham all have a realistic chance of becoming the first South African winner since Raynard Tissink in 2012 while renowned international athletes, Ben Hoffman, Tim Van Berkel, Ronnie Schildknecht, David Plese and Boris Stein will be looking to land the title of IRONMAN African Champion and earn early qualification to the IRONMAN World Championship.





“While many were looking forward to seeing Jan race in South Africa, his decision to withdraw is the correct one considering the extent of the injury. We wish him well during his recovery and look forward to seeing him racing again very soon,” said Paul Wolff, Operations Director for IRONMAN South Africa.





For more information on the Standard Bank IRONMAN African Championship visit www.ironman.com/southafrica. For media enquiries contact mediasa@ironman.com.



