Former national boxer wins his first triathlon

By Cayman Sports Buzz
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Updated: 14 February 2018

Kendall Ebanks shows off his bloodied hand as a 'victory wound'.

It was a different kind of victory for Kendall Ebanks on Sunday, 11 February. Accustomed to conquering foes inside the ring, the former national boxer won his first triathlon event, taking the top spot in the International Distance at the 2018 Mercuryman.

Describing it as a “very surprising” race, he completed the 0.6-mile swim, 28-mile bike ride and 6.5-mile run in two hours, 40 minutes and 44.25 seconds ahead of 15 other male competitors.

Ebanks arrived at the start mere minutes before the race began without enough time to warm-up, and against the backdrop of not putting in what he considered enough training in the three weeks leading up to the event.

Nonetheless, the 27-year-old quickly sprung into action, being one of the first swimmers to complete the course off Eden Rock Diving Center.

“I got in the water, I got on Chris Bailey’s feet; [he’s] a super-fast swimmer, so I figured I must be doing good. I just stayed on him and finished the swim right behind him, which was extremely good,” Ebanks said.

Ebanks before a mishap nearly put his win in jeopardy.

His greatest adversity came at around the half-way point of the bike ride. “I went to grab a sip of water and the bottle fell out of my hand. I went to grab for it and unluckily, my fingers got caught in the spokes. I was going about 20 miles per hour when my fingers hit the spokes,” he said, showing a bloody left hand to CaymanSportsBuzz.com that he said was throbbing with pain.

However, he found some motivation from the situation that could have had a way worse outcome. “With every negative, there’s a positive and that just pushed me. I had the best bike time that I’ve had on the way back.”

Ebanks said after that he just tried to keep a steady pace on the run to take him to the finish just off the George Town waterfront. “I feel very good that I got the win. I’m super happy,” he said.

Guy Rodgers was second just under four minutes behind Ebanks to finish in 2:44:35.13. “I finished, that’s all that matters. That’s the best part,” he said. “The water was nice and cool. I wish it could have stayed like that,” said Rogers. “But it got worse and worse from there.”