Craig Alexander and Liz Blatchford won the elite titles at Ironman 70.3 Geelong.
Men:
Estonian Marko Albert led the swim in 21:25, followed by James Seear, Sam Appleton (21:44) Casey Munro (21:48), Paul Ambrose (21:49), Luke Bell (21:51), Jamie Huggett (21:52), Craig Alexander (21:55), and Mark Bowstead (22:04).
Halfway through the bike, Alexander, Bowstead and Appleton put 2 minutes into the chase pack of six which included Tom Rodgers, Huggett, Symonds, Munro and Ambrose. Nearing the end of the 56-mile bike leg, Appleton, Alexander and Bowstead increased their lead to 3 minutes. The leading trio posted swift bike splits as Bowstead’s 2:09:12 was best, followed by Alexander (2:09:14) and Appleton (2:09:25). The leading trio had a 3 to 6 minutes gap on the chasers who included Symonds, Albert, Ambrose and Munro.
Starting the run, Alexander and Appleton immediately left Bowstead behind and ran shoulder-to-shoulder for 18k, whereupon the 3-time Ironman World Champion and 2-time Ironman 70.3 World champion showed the upstart his heels. Crowie polished off the half marathon in a race-best 1:12:25. He hit the line in 3:46:26 with a 17 seconds margin over Appleton and 3:48 over third-place finisher Bowstead, who ran 1:17:13.
“I gave it all I could but the old guy got me in the end,” said runner-up Appleton.
Alexander thus repeated his 2014 Geelong victory and added to a solid start to 2015 which has included a win at the Port of Tauranga Half and a 4th at Auckland 70.3.
“I put a lot of surges in today, on one of the downhills I was running sub-three minute kilometers, and I still couldn’t drop Sam,” said Crowie. “I was disappointed after Kona last year and took some time off; I trained through Christmas and actually feel fitter than I did last year at the same time.”
Jeffrey Symonds of Canada made up for a 22:46 swim and a 2:12:50 bike split with a third-best 1:13:58 run to take 4th, 1:07 back of Bowstead. Marko Albert took 5th in 3:54:48.
Women
Rebekah Keat (23:44), Liz Blatchford (23:45), and Gina Crawford (23:53) broke out front on the swim, gaining a 2 minutes advantage on nearest chasers Madeline Oldfield, Kate Schultz, Sarah Crowley and Renee Baker.
The trio held their lead, arriving in T2 together with similar bike splits – Crawford (2:27:48), Keat (2:28:02) and Blatchford (2:28:05) with Stephanie Jones (slow swim, 2:27:12 bike split), Sarah Crowley, and Marie Sorrell roughly 3 minutes down.
Keat charged to the lead on the run, establishing a 54 seconds lead on Blatchford and 1:43 on Crawford at the 8k mark. But Keat’s gutsy gambit did not hold, as Blatchford rallied on her way to a 2nd-best 1:24:25 run that caught Keat (1:24:57 run) in the final kilometer. Blatchford finished first in 4:19:34 with a 29 seconds margin on runner-up Keat. Sarah Crowley made up for a 25:52 swim and 2:30:48 bike split with a women’s fastest 1:21:15 run to pass Crawford and take 3rd place, 1:18 back of Blatchford. Crawford finished with a 1:26:50 run that brought her to the line in 4th place, 1:20 back of Crowley.
“I only had one pace today, so I just had to run my own race. Bek took off out of transition quickly and she got a minute up the road. I held steady and she blew up and started to come back to me, so I dug deep and managed to get the win. It was fun out there today,” said Blatchford.
Ironman 70.3 Geelong
Geelong, Australia
February 8, 2015
S 1.2 mi./ B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 3:46:26
2. Sam Appleton (AUS) 3:46:43
3. Mark Bowstead (NZL) 3:50:14
4. Jeffrey Symonds (CAN) 3:52:21
5. Marko Albert (EST) 3:54:48
6. Paul Ambrose (AUS) 3:55:36
7. Casey Munro (AUS) 3:57:53
8. Nick Baldwin (AUS) 3:59:37
9. Jamie Huggett (AUS) 4:02:08
10. Leigh Stabyrla (AUS ) 4:02:53
Women
1. Liz Blatchford (AUS) 4:19:34
2. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 4:20:03
3. Sarah Crowley (AUS) 4:20:52
4. Gina Crawford (NZL) 4:22:12
5. Stephanie Jones (USA) 4:26:37
6. Katy Duffield (AUS) 4:27:55
7. Marie Sorrell (NZL) 4:32:53
