PLYMOUTH Tri Club’s Ken Holder has qualified for the 2017 Ironman World Championships in Hawaii after a stunning performance at Weymouth.

Holder finished 15^th overall and second in the men’s 45-49 age group at the Ironman Weymouth event, which attracted a bumper international field with it being a world qualifying race.

The city star’s time was 10 hours and 55 seconds. Holder was the fourth Great Britain athlete home and only the Netherlands’ Conrad Boerman beat him in his age category.

Boerman overtook in him the final stages of the marathon run to finish one place and just 22 seconds ahead of Holder.

The Plymouth Tri member completed the swim in 58.40 minutes. That left him 17^th overall and fourth in his category. He moved up to 11^th and first in his group after the bike ride, which he completed in 5:25.34.

He finished the event with a 3:31.17 marathon run.

The race was won by Poland’s Michal Podsiadłowski in 9:22.25, with Denmark’s Soren Kofoed second in 9:30.57 and Sweden’s Martin Fredriksson third in 9:37.47.

Holder was not the only Plymouth Tri Club member to complete the event.  Matthew McArther finished 195^th overall and 42^nd in his category in a time of 11:59.33.

As well as a full length race at Weymouth, there was an Ironman 70.3 event, which is half the distance.

Plymouth Tri Club had seven athletes complete this event and six of them finished within the top 100 of their categories.

First home was Luke Bowditch, who finished in five hours, 16 minutes and five seconds. He was 154^th overall and 23^rd in his age category (male 25-29).

Bowditch was closely followed home by Jamie Muirhead, who finished in 5:21.15. He was 26^th in his category (male 40-44) and 197^th overall.

Bridget Tippet, racing for the Stroke Association, was Plymouth Tri Club’s top age group finisher by taking 11^th spot in the female 25-29 category in a time of 6:11.05.

Mark Schofield was 21^st in his category (male 45-49) in 5:25.24. Other finishers were Darren Peters (M40-44) 5:52.45, Andy Nunn (M50-54) 6:26.45 and Jason Hillier (M45-49) in 6:58.35.