Sunday, May 8, 2011

70.3 Busselton and IM ST George

70.3 Busselton, Australia

Tim Berkel took the win at 70.3 Busselton just 6 days after finishing second to Joe Gambles at 70.3 Port Macquarie. Jo Lawn had won the women's race in Port Macquarie and added another fine win to her impressive resume.

Kiwi  and blueseventy athlete/ worker Guy Crawford led the men out of the water but Bryan Rhodes and David Dellow were quite close.





Crawford then put on a show on the bike and held off all other competitors until T2. His gap of 4 minutes though would not be enough and a host of guys started to run him down.

At the end blueseventys Tim Berkel proved to be the strongest and took the win. Matty White and Tim Reed rounded out the podium.





Jo Lawn was first out of the water among the women with a 30 second lead over a small pack that included Rebekah Keat, Elly Franks and Belinda Granger.

Franks and Granger though managed to pass Lawn and at the end of the bike segment they had a 3 minute lead over Lawn and Keat.

During the run Lawn and Keat steadily took time back and with 7k to go the new leader was Lawn. Lawn then held on to take her second title in 6 days.

"I was definitely relaxed; I came to Australia to do two solid training workouts to get ready for Ironman Texas. I was looking to increase my fitness and testing my running and I raced both races on my training bike (Cervelo P3) as my goal was just to treat them as a training sessions. Once I had won 70.3 Port there was a feeling that training was going well. It was awesome to come back to Australia as the support I got in both races was amazing," said Lawn to slowtwitch.
Ironman 70.3 Busselton
Busselton, Australia / May 7, 2011
1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run
Top men

1. Tim Berkel (AUS) 3:51:27
2. Matty White (AUS) 3:52:50
3. Tim Reed (AUS) 3:53:59
4. Josh Rix (AUS) 3:56:05

5. Jamie Whyte (NZL) 3:57:10
6. Guy Crawford (NZL) 3:58:15
"fastest swim"
7. Mitchell Anderson (AUS) 3:59:55
8. Leon Griffin (AUS) 4:00:09
9. Lajos Vargas (AUS) 4:01:14 *AG
10. Paul Mackay (AUS) 4:01:28


Top women

1. Jo Lawn (NZL) 4:13:23
2. Felicity Sheedy Ryan (AUS) 4:15:21
3. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 4:15:55
4. Belinda Granger (AUS) 4:16:35
5. Elly Franks (AUS) 4:34:33
6. Christie Sym (AUS) 4:26:56
7. Madeleine Oldfield 4:29:06
8. Katrina Mercer (AUS) 4:29:26
9. Rachael Smith (AUS) 4:30:55
10. Janine Willis (AUS) 4:37:04 





Ironman St George


Mathias Hecht of Switzerland won his first Ironman and Heather Wurtele of Canada won her third Ironman and defended her title at Ford Ironman St. George Saturday.

Hecht took over from fellow Commerzbank Team member and bike leader Maik Twelsiek at Mile 15 of the run. Hecht, whose previous best finishes include a second place at Ironman Switzerland and third places at Ironman New Zealand and Ironman Lake Placid, finished off with a race-best 2:56:50 run and a final time of 8:32:03 which gave him a 1:43 margin of victory over Twelsiek and broke 2010 winner Michael Weiss’s course record by 8 minutes 5 seconds. Twelsiek’s race-best 4:36:20 ride gave him a 3-minute lead over Hecht starting the run, but his 4th-best 3:01:36 marathon left him in second place. Fearsome cyclist TJ Tollakson inexplicably fell behind with a 4:49:25 bike but charged hard with a 2nd-best 2:58:02 run to take third place in 8:40:20, 1:19 ahead of 4th place Ben Hoffman.


In the women’s race, Wurtele (55:00 swim and 5:17:00 bike) trailed swim and bike leader Jodie Swallow (49:29 swim and 5:17:44 bike) by 4:45 starting the run. But when Swallow, the 2010 Ironman 70.3 World Champion, started to fade at Mile 5 due to an injured foot, Wurtele charged and had a 2:45 lead at Mile 6.75. After Swallow pulled out on the run, Wurtele obliterated the surviving field with a race-best 3:14:50 marathon which gave her a 36:03 margin of victory over race runner-up and Jackie Arendt of Madison, Wisconsin. When Wurtele hit the line in 9:30:33, the 6-foot 2-inch Canadian broke her own course record by 4 minutes 52 seconds.
Ford Ironman St. George
St. George, Utah
May 7, 2011
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.
Results
Men

1. Mathias Hecht (SUI) 8:32:03

2. Maik Twelsiek (GER) 8:33:46
3. TJ Tollakson (USA) 8:40:20
4. Ben Hoffman (USA) 8:41:39
5. Mike Aigroz (SUI) 8:42:06

6. Paul Ambrose (AUS) 8:51:41
7. Alejandro Santamaria (ESP) 9:04:38
8. Christian Brader (GER) 9:08:19

9. Petr Vabrousek (CZE) 9:11:11
10. Bevan McKinnon (NZL) 9:12:37
Women

1. Heather Wurtele (CAN) 9:30:33
2. Jackie Arendt (USA) 10:06:36
3. Uli Bromme (GER/USA) 10:10:48
4. Jessica Smith (USA) 10:20:45 * F30-34
5. Liis Toomingas (EST) 10:36:36
6. Tamara Kozulina (UKR) 10:43:37

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