Vegan triathlete Sebastjan Gergoric continued his world class performances with an elite performance at Ironman Switzerland.
“The swim was not as planned” the Slovenian told Great Vegan Athletes, referring to the 2.4 mile (3.8 km) first stage, which he finished in just over 67 minutes.
The next stage was 112 miles (180 km) cycling section. This race had a hilly bike route, although Seba felt that is performance was about normal.
This left him with the last leg, a 26 mile (42 km) marathon run.
“The run was very good” he said. “I was surprised with the 3.09 h marathon on the end of a long day.”
World Championship qualifying
This gave Seba a total time of 9 hours 36 minutes. The 4th place in his age group in a high profile is exceptional and gave him a coveted spot at the World Championships in Kona. Unfortunately he will not be taking it.
The obstacle is finance, and this is the third time he has had to forfeit a Kona slot for the same reason.
Vegan
Sebastjan stopped eating meat in 2005, and by 2013 he was vegan.
“I was suffering from a lot of headaches, and this was caused too much canned fish and heavy metals. A lot of fish contain lead, silver, aluminium and cadmium” he told us in 2016. “I was also influenced by the ‘Ultraman’ book by Rich Roll.
“Now I eat completely vegan. I never eat animal products, and that includes when I’m traveling or in hotels. When I’m traveling, my girlfriend always looks for an apartment, so I can cook for myself.”