Tough break: We have news that one of the women's pre race favorites, Linsey Corbin will be not starting tomorrow due to illness.
Race Day is here! Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the Standard Bank IRONMAN African Championship. We're expecting an exciting day of racing with the deepest PRO field ever assembled in Africa. Early forecasts show sunny skies with a high of around 24 degrees celsius but as always, the deciding factor is the wind.
An easterly is expected which could make things tough out there today. It's relatively calm right now but the wind speed should pick up during the day.
our PRO field is the strongest ever assembled here with so many IRONMAN champions in the field.

Pro men's field
1 Cyril Viennot FRANCE
2 Frederik Van Lierde BELGIUM
3 Bart Aernouts BELGIUM
4 Michael Weiss AUSTRIA
5 Kyle Buckingham SOUTH AFRICA
6 Bas Diederen NETHERLANDS
7 Matt Trautman SOUTH AFRICA
8 Johann Ackermann GERMANY
9 Mike Aigroz SWITZERLAND
10 Konstantin Bachor GERMANY
11 Billard Bertrand FRANCE
12 Gerhard Bruin SOUTH AFRICA
13 Fraser Cartmell UNITED KINGDOM
14 Alberto Casadei ITALY
17 Greg Close UNITED STATES
18 James Cunnama SOUTH AFRICA
19 Karl-Johan Danielsson SWEDEN
20 Michael Davidson SOUTH AFRICA
21 Victor Del Corral Morales SPAIN
22 Trevor Delsaut FRANCE
23 Marc Dülsen GERMANY
24 Karol Dzalaj SLOVAKIA
25 Herve Faure FRANCE
26 Frederik Flagstad GREENLAND
27 Cool Hannes BELGIUM
28 Kent Horner SOUTH AFRICA
29 Allan Hovda NORWAY
30 Martin Jensen DENMARK
31 Kirill Kotsegarov ESTONIA
32 Roman Krutina CZECH REPUBLIC
33 Eneko Llanos SPAIN
34 Carlos Lopez Diaz SPAIN
35 Jim Lubinski UNITED STATES
36 David Mcnamee UNITED KINGDOM
37 Johannes Moldan GERMANY
39 David Plese SLOVENIA
40 Ivan Rana SPAIN
41 Michael Ruenz GERMANY
42 Till Schramm GERMANY
43 Boris Stein GERMANY
44 Swen Sundberg GERMANY
45 Sudrie Sylvain FRANCE
46 Tj Tollakson UNITED STATES
47 Craig Twigg UNITED KINGDOM
48 Müller Urs SWITZERLAND
49 Hendrik-Jan Verhaegen BELGIUM
50 Andrej Vistica CROATIA
Pro women's field
51 Jodie Swallow UNITED KINGDOM
54 Lucy Gossage UNITED KINGDOM
55 Stefanie Adam BELGIUM
56 Anne Basso FRANCE
59 Susie Cheetham UNITED KINGDOM
60 Tine Deckers BELGIUM
61 Amber Ferreira UNITED STATES
62 Amy Forshaw UNITED KINGDOM
63 Astrid Ganzow GERMANY
64 Alyssa Godesky UNITED STATES
65 Eleanor Haresign UNITED KINGDOM
66 Corina Hengartner SWITZERLAND
67 Jessica Jones Meyers UNITED STATES
69 Heather Leiggi UNITED STATES
70 Maria Lemeseva RUSSIAN FEDERATION
71 Caroline Livesey UNITED KINGDOM
72 Britta Martin NEW ZEALAND
38 Camilla Pedersen DENMARK
73 Nina Pekerman ISRAEL
74 Lucie Reed CZECH REPUBLIC
75 Diana Riesler GERMANY
76 Riana Robertson SOUTH AFRICA
78 Caitlin Snow UNITED STATES
79 Sonja Tajsich GERMANY
81 Eva Wutti AUSTRIA
The big news out of the Pro Women's field is the withdrawal of Linsey Corbin after she did not recover from a viral infection. She announced yesterday that she would not start.
Spectators have gathered on the Nelson Mandela Bay beachfront in droves to watch the start of the swim. With only one hour to go, securing a prime spot to watch proceedings is the priority of many a spectator.
The South African national anthem is now being sung to commemorate the beginning of the inaugural Standard Bank Ironman African Championship.
The PRO men have entered the water
The PRO men are heading to the first buoy at 300m
The pro women have entered the swim.
Expected temperature today is approximately 19 degrees celcius
Kyle is 4th and Frederik Van Lierde is 5th in the swim
We're streaming LIVE with commentary from Paula Newby-Fraser, Gerald De Kock and Alec Riddle.
And everybody is in the water - the competition is on!
Jodie Swallow is in the lead 150m ahead of the rest.
Swallow swam the first kilometre in approximately 12 minutes
Swallow has caught up to the back end of the pro men.
Leading men are approaching the shore.
Van Lierde has overtaken Buckingham's third place in the swim.
All female athletes are now in the water.
Riesler is 4th, Cheetham is 5th. The ladies are looking strong and will want to chase Swallow down
Ackermann is taking it slowly, on the course on his own.
First position is held by Van Lierde, followed by Buckingham and Billard in 3rd. There is a small gap and Sudrie takes 4th position.
Swallow continues to dominate the women's race, having passed the 72km mark traveling at 42km/h.
Portuguese amateur Carlo Artunes passed 60km mark at 9:30
After the leaders pack, we have Llanos, Bachor, Diederen, Viennot, Mcnamee, Cunnama, Rana, Aernouts