Ben Collins of the United States and Helle Frederiksen of Denmark won the men’s and women’s pro titles at the Nautica South Beach Triathlon in Miami by comfortable margins.

Collins came out of the swim 6th-best in 19:11 but the rest of his splits were not recorded.

Collins, 29, who was second at this race last year to ITU superstar Javier Gomez and finished 2nd at the Toyota Cup U.S. Open in Dallas, finished the flat, fast course in 1:46:55, which was 38 seconds faster than Gomez's 2012 mark.

Collins beat runner-up Richard Murray, a topflight ITU competitor from South Africa who biked 54:32 and ran 31:46, by a total of 1 minute and 26 seconds.

Joe Maloy of the U.S. combined a pro men’s best 18:48 swim with a 55:08 bike effort and a 32:16 run to take 3rd, 26 seconds behind Murray. Four-time Olympian Hunter Kemper of the U.S. worked out the rust in his game with a 4th place finish, 14 seconds behind Maloy.

Frederiksen, 32, who recently won Ironman 70.3 San Juan and was 2nd at the ITU Pan American Cup sprint race at Clermont, Florida, overcame a 52-seconds deficit to Alicia Kaye after the bike leg with a race-best pro women’s run of 35:06 to finish in 1:58:44 with a 1:15 margin of victory over Kaye.

Frederiksen's race time was 1:29 better than 2012 champion Sarah Haskins, who is pregnant and did not compete this year.

Lauren Goss finished 3rd, precisely 3 minutes behind Kaye and 5 seconds ahead of 4th place finisher and fellow U.S. Competitor Jillian Petersen.

Sara McLarty of Clermont, Florida, who led the swim with a 20:24 split that put 1:39 over Frederiksen and whose 3rd-best 1:00:29 bike split left her 9 seconds behind Frederiksen, fell to 7th with a 48:52 run.

Frederiksen was elated with overcoming hard-charging Alicia Kaye's lead after the bike. "It was tough out there," Frederiksen said. "Alicia really put the pressure on during the bike and it was all about damage control. I felt I rode well but Alicia took the biking to another level. I was confident in my run -- I had it in my mind pre-race that the race would be won on the run. I caught Alicia at the 5km mark and my focus then was to keep driving."

Nautica South Beach Triathlon
South Beach Miami, Florida
April 7, 2013
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Pro Men

1. Ben Collins (USA) 1:46:55
2. Richard Murray (RSA) 1:48:21
3. Joe Maloy (USA) 1:48:47
4. Hunter Kemper (USA) 1:49:01
5. Chris Foster (USA) 1:50:33
6. Kaleb Van Ort (USA) 1:51:12
7. James Seear (AUS) 1:53:08
8. Eric Lagerstrom (USA) 1:53:15
9. Michael Poole (USA) 1:53:45
10. Kevin Everett (USA) 1:54:41

Pro Women

1. Helle Frederiksen (DNK) 1:58:44
2. Alicia Kaye (USA) 1:59:59
3. Lauren Goss (USA) 2:02:59
4. Jillian Petersen (USA) 2:08:04
5. Abby Geurink (USA) 2:08:05
6. Shannon Radle (USA) 2:12:12
7. Sara McLarty (USA) 2:13:06
8. Fiorella Brusatin (COL) 2:15:29
9. Maxine Seear (AUS) 2:16:47
10. Liz Baugher (USA) 2:19:04