This Puneite is World Iron Man for 10th time

Kaustubh Radkar of Pune bagged the World Iron Man title in Triathlon for the 10th time in succession and has become the first Indian to do so on November 10 at Fortaleza, Sao Paolo in Brazil. He completed Monday's race in 13 Hours, 49 minutes and 19 seconds.

In Brazil, Kaustubh completed) swimming 2.4 miles (3.8 km in 57 minutes and 35 seconds after which he completed a bicycle race of 112 miles (180 km) in 6 hours 52 minutes and 24 seconds and then ran the full Marathon of 26.2 miles (42.6 kms) in 5 hours 43 minutes and 53 seconds.

As compared to other triathlons, Fortaleza presents a severe challenge with unpredictable changing and hot weather and an extremely hilly cycling portion that involves several technical and challenging climbs. It is also a 2-lap course which means cyclists must tackle these climbs twice. As the weather gets hot the runners take on the challenge of tackling 42.6km and finish the race.

Kaustubh hails from Pune and was a student of Karnataka High School and Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce in Pune. He is a national-level swimmer who represented Pune University, Maharashtra and India at the Asia Pacific Championships in swimming. After class 12 he went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania and obtained a bachelors degree in Physical Science and sports. Thereafter, he obtained a masters degree in the same filed from Wisconsin University and obtained an MBA in Sports and Physical Education and Health Care from John Hopkins University. He did his PhD in Sport Administration while working in John Hopkin's Hospital at Baltimore, USA. For 7 years, Kaustubh worked as a cardiovascular medicine specialist from John Hopkins Hospital.

He has been completing Ironman competitions from 2008. He has completed the full Marathons in New York before taking up the Ironman races. After returning to India, 32-year-old Kaustubh has taken the challenges of bringing American Education and Experience to Pune and has started a Wellness Centre that is specialised in cardiovascular, pulmonary, spine, cancer and other ailments along with special training in Triathlon.