Ashley Couper and Marie-lyne Dore achieved impressive finishes at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

Competing in her sixth Ironman, Dore completed the 3.8km swim, 180km bike and full marathon in 10hr 22min 7sec, finishing eighth of 235 in the 40 to 44 age group and 93rd overall.

Couper’s time of 11:09:06 placed her 27th of 237 in the 45 to 49 division and 298th overall.

Dore, 42, came out of the water 38th in her age group. A strong bike ride saw her make up 19 places to head into the run in nineteenth position before she overtook 11 competitors in the marathon to secure an impressive finish.

“My strength for Ironman distance is the run,” Dore told The Royal Gazette.

“I caught 11 girls in my age group during the marathon, but it’s the discipline where you suffer the most, 90 degrees, sunny and humid like Bermuda.

“The most challenging part of the race was the bike because it was super windy and headwinds for the last 50km. The swim was the toughest I’ve ever done. Apparently the conditions this year were really hard, we had strong winds and it was really humid.”

Competing in her second Ironman, 47-year-old Couper overcame sea sickness to emerge from the water 93rd. She dropped to 130th during the first transition but made a strong comeback to gain 78 places in the rest of the race.

“It was a really tough race and that’s how I would describe my experience,” Couper said.

“The swim was really rough, so I was seasick after that and I took a while to get out of the transition because of that sickness.

“The bike went quite well and I had a good time there. It was really hot and windy so I was constantly pouring water over my back just to cool down.

“I had trouble getting all the nutrition that I wanted just because I fell sick from the swim.

“The run went fairly well but the heat was unbearable so it was hard to get enough fluids. When I finished, I ended up in the medical tent for a couple of hours getting some IV fluids because I felt so bad.

“It was my second Ironman, my first one was Lake Placid in July, where I qualified. It was on my bucket list to do an Ironman and now I can tick that box.

“All in all, I’m happy with the result. I’m glad it’s done and I don’t see myself doing a full Ironman race in the future. I can now move on to something else.”