A 2.4-mile stretch of the Hudson River was deadly for an athlete in New York’s first Ironman competition yesterday.
The unidentified 43-year-old man suffered some kind of medical distress in the swim portion that opened the race, police said.
The man was pulled out of the water and brought to a hospital in Englewood, NJ, but could not be saved. The cause of death is unknown, and an autopsy is planned.
The death marred an otherwise successful event, athletes said yesterday at the finish line in Riverside Park.
After the swim on the Hudson’s New Jersey shore, contestants biked 112 miles and then ran 26.2 miles.
The swim portion of the race was threatened last week when a main break in Westchester County sent millions of gallons of sewage into the river.
But tests Thursday found the water was clean. “At certain parts it smelled like watermelon,” said eighth-place finisher Pedro Gomes of Lisbon, Portugal.
“I was concerned because of the reports. But Ironman wouldn’t take a chance of putting 2,500 people in the water if it wasn’t healthy,” Gomes said.