Craig Alexander of Australia and Emma-Kate Lidbury of Great Britain won Ironman 70.3 Kansas Sunday.
Men
Three-time Ironman World Champion and two-time Ironman 70.3 World Champion Craig Alexander fought off a determined, race-long challenge by Daniel Bretscher of Mt. Vernon Iowa.
Gavin Anderson of Louisville, Colorado led the swim with a 22:33 split that was 35 seconds ahead of James Hadley of Great Britain, 36 seconds ahead of Alexander, 38 seconds ahead of Paul Ambrose of Australia, 46 seconds ahead of Matthew Pellow of Australia and 1:15 ahead of Bretscher. Jozsef Major put himself in a 3:55 hole after a 26:28 swim.
Bretscher went into full-on chase mode on the bike, posting a race-best 2:09:54 which was 14 seconds better than Alexander’s bike split and left the Iowan 46 seconds back of the great Australian who is a decade older and multiple World Championships richer.
Hadley (4:07 back of the leader) led the rest of the chasers followed by Major (-5:27) Anderson (-5:44) and Ambrose (-6:00).
Alexander gradually extended his lead over Bretscher and had a 1:26 advantage at Mile 8.5, with Hadley and Major trailing by 7:30, tied for 3rd.
Cruising to the finish, Alexander’s 2nd-best 1:15:56 run was 42 seconds better than Bretscher’s never-give-up 1:16:38 mark. Alexander finished in 3:51:26 with a 1:28 margin of victory over Bretscher. Hadley held 3rd with a 1:19:31 run that left him 7:41 back of the winner and 34 seconds ahead of the hard-charging 1:18:44 closing run of 4th-place Jozsef Major.
Ireland's Robbie Wade posted a race-fastest 1:14:56 run to advance to 6th at the finish, exactly 1 minute back of 5th-place finisher Gavin Anderson.
Recently retired Super Bowl MVP and Dancing With the Stars featured contestant Hines Ward finished this race in 5:53:18, which is part of his training for a date with the Ironman World Championship at Kona this October.
Women
Emma-Kate Lidbury won wire-to-wire with a race-best 24:47 swim, race-fastest 2:24:13 bike split and a 3rd-fastest 1:24:14 run that brought her to the finish in 4:15:49 with a 5:58 margin of victory over runner-up Danielle Kehoe of Arvada, Colorado and 7:57 over 3rd-place Mandy McLane of Boulder, Colorado.
Lidbury’s 24:47 swim left Missy Kuck 39 seconds down, followed by Jessica Smith (-41s), Mandy McLane (-48s) Jackie Arendt (-1:10), and Whitney Garcia (-2:02) and 4:57 ahead of dangerous biker-runner Danielle Kehoe..
Lidbury essentially closed the deal on the bike as her 2:24:13 split was 2:17 better than Kehoe, 4:18 better than Garcia, 4:27 better than McLane and 5:19 better than Missy Kuck. Starting the run, Lidbury had a roughly 5 minute lead on McLane, almost 7 minutes on Kehoe and a little more than 7 minutes on Garcia.
Lidbury surrendered very little to the best of her chasers with a 3rd-best 1:24:14 half marathon run that gave back just 1:12 to Kehoe, who finished 2nd, and 1:02 to Lesley Smith, who finished 5th.
“Normally, I’m a swim-biker who hangs on in the run,” an exhilarated Lidbury told Ironman.com media at the finish.
Lidbury's win continues to 5-race winning streak for British women at Ironman 70. Kansas. Chrissie Wellington won this race in 2009, 2010 and 2001 and Rachel Joyce won last year.
Ironman 70.3 Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
June 9, 2013
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 3:51:26
2. Daniel Bretscher (USA) 3:52:54
3. James Hadley (GBR) 3:59:07
4. Jozsef Major (HUN) 3:59:41
5. Gavin Anderson (USA) 4:01:29
6. Robbie Wade (IRL) 4:02:09
7. Paul Ambrose (AUS) 4:02:21
8. Adam Bohach (USA) 4:02:30
9. Ryan Harwell (USA) 4:03:48 * M30-34
10. Rusty Pruden (USA) 4:07:55 * M30-34
Women
1. Emma-Kate Lidbury (GBR) 4:15:39
2. Danielle Kehoe (USA) 4:21:47
3. Mandy McLane (USA) 4:23:46
4. Whitney Garcia (USA) 4:25:16
5. Lesley Smith (USA) 4:29:30
6. Corrie Kristick (USA) 4:29:44 * F30-34
7. Jessica Smith (USA) 4:31:15
8. Missy Kuck (USA) 4:31:22
9. Jackie Arendt (USA) 4:33:52
10. Kimberly Pancoast (USA) 4:36:30 * F25-29
