Andi Böcherer ran away from Paul Ambrose and Luke McKenzie to take the 2012 Ironman 70.3 Cozumel in 3:53:45. Liz Blatchford had a solid day throughout and grabbed the women's title ahead of Melissa Hauschildt in 4:14:31.

The men

Several Pro men were bunched together tightly during the swim and Andres Castillo Latorre from Colombia led them all out of the water.

Once on the bikes though, Andi Böcherer, Luke McKenzie and Paul Ambrose dropped the rest of the swim leading Pros with their crushing 2:07:12 and 2:07:22 bike splits and it appeared that the race winner would emerge from these 3 leaders. Several other Pros rode respectable 2:11 times, but 4 minutes was indeed much to make up.

Böcherer looked very good on the run too and about halfway through that final segment he started to pull away from McKenzie and Ambrose. His 1:20:20 run split wasn't the fastest of the day, but gave him a comfortable winning time of 3:53:45. Daniel Fontana had the race best run split of 1:18:56, and that allowed him to move into second place at the end. Ambrose held on to the final podium spot and McKenzie finished fourth.

"I was very confident to run away from them and after 10 kilometers I had established a 2-minute lead," said Böcherer in an e-mail. "From that point it was just me, the heat, lots of ice cubes, water, coke and the strong Carribean sun."

The women

Liz Blatchford and Jodie Swallow led the women out of the water with their 23:41 and 23:44 swim times, and only Emma-Kate Lidbury stayed reasonably close with her 25:40 time. All other Pros needed more than 27 minutes, and now the race was on.

Blatchford and Swallow rode respectable 2:24:17 and 2:24:18 splits, but behind them Melissa Hauschildt rode a race best 2:20:27 and that allowed the fast Aussie to reach the bike-run transition with the two leaders. Lidbury though also had a great day on the bike and her 2:22:10 effort made it now a four horse race.

Blatchford's race best 1:23:56 run gave the fast Brit the win and showed that her decision to move to longer distances had proven to be a god one. Hauschildt finished in second place about 4-minutes later and Yvonne Van Vlerken grabbed 3rd place.


Ironman 70.3 Cozumel
Cozumel, Mexico / September 23, 2012
1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run

Top men

1. Andi Böcherer (GER) 3:53:45
2. Daniel Fontana (ITA) 3:56:20
3. Paul Ambrose (GBR) 3:57:22
4. Luke McKenzie (AUS) 3:58:03
5. James Hadley (GBR) 3:59:17
6. Callum Millward (NZL) 4:01:17
7. Michael Lovato (USA) 4:01:24
8. Andres Castillo Latorre (COL) 4:01:36
9. Lautoro Diaz (ARG) 4:03:58
10. Brandon Marsh (USA) 4:05:49

Top women

1. Liz Blatchford (GBR) 4:14:31
2. Melissa Hauschildt (AUS) 4:18:36
3. Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) 4:22:10
4. Bree Wee (USA) 4:25:22
5. Emma-Kate Lidbury (GBR) 4:26:35
6. Carrie Lester (AUS) 4:31:55
7. Amanda Lovato (USA) 4:41:56
8. Ayesha One (CAN) 4:42:54
9. Valentina Carvallo (CHI) 4:45:48
10. Morgan Chaffin (USA) 4:52:15