But the 40-year-old endurance athlete has no doubts which one was his most satisfying.

‘‘It is certainly rewarding to get to the finish line but to get on that top step of the podium was the ultimate for me,” Bell says.

‘‘You work and train so hard to get there so it is a great reward.’’

Bell took out the men’s 40-44 years category at the pinnacle of Ironman racing in Hawaii earlier this month.

The Windang-local finished more than three and a half minutes clear of the next athlete in his age group in a time of nine hours, three minutes and 53 seconds.

The result placed Bell 32^nd overall and took close to 10 minutes off his time in 2014, where he finished 10th in the 35-39 category.

Twelve months later, he held off fellow Australian Assad Attamimi for the top spot.

Attamimi crossed the line in second in nine hours, seven minutes and 37 seconds after he couldn’t bridge the gap to Bell on the run leg.

Bell’s time of a touch over three hours over the marathon distance final leg proved too difficult to run down.

‘‘The run leg is typically my strongest leg and the weather wasn’t as windy as it has been in previous years,’’ Bell said.

‘‘It was certainly just as hot. It was very warm.’’

Bell had started the endurance test by completing the 3.86km swim in 59 mins and one second before knocking over the 180km cycle in just under five hours. 

He put the result down to months of preparation. 

‘‘It is a year of preparation but generally I will do a specific 16-week build up for the race which includes swimming about 20km a week, riding upwards of 400km and running 80-100km,” Bell said.

The win gives Bell the chance to defend his title in 12 months time.

‘‘It is automatic qualification for next year so we are just weighing things up to see if we go back or go to the half Ironman World Championships which is in Mooloolaba,” Bell said.

‘‘That is the next big championship races I am looking at and they are in September.

‘‘Before that I will go to the Nepean 70.3 which is in November at the Penrith Regatta Centre.’’

After taking a week off Waikiki to enjoy his win, Bell admits to already returning to training for his next endurance event.

‘‘I started training again on Monday. when I got back,” Bell said.

‘‘It is a week before you start feeling any good but it probably takes a month before you are fully over it,

‘‘After that race, it is more or less our grand final so you can sort of let yourself go for a week then get back into it.”