Beth Gerdes overcame a 12:38 deficit to defending champion Michelle Bremer and Tim Reed erased Clayton Fettell’s 8:24 lead with race-best runs to win Ironman Australia.

On her way to a women's-best 2:56:10 marathon, Gerdes caught Bremer with 5 km to go, finishing in 9:10:28 with a 3:06 margin of victory over Bremer and 31:48 over 3rd-place finisher Dimity-Lee Duke.

“I thought I would not catch Michelle but I never gave up,” Gerdes told Ironman.com after a rainy day race. “With the weather the run was more like a Tough Mudder than a marathon but that was fun.”

Reed passed long-time leader Clayton Fettell with 10 miles left in the marathon, then closed the deal with a race-best 2:51:32 run to finish in 8:16:34 with a 5:44 margin of victory on David Dellow and 6:48 on 3rd-place Fettell.

Greeted by family and friends at the finish, Reed was emotional about the recent death of close friend. “I had something to fight for today,” said Reed. “I lost a really great friend and he was coming up to watch me. I gave everything for him.”

Women

Michelle Bremer, the Ironman Australia defending champ, was 3rd after a 54:28 swim that put her 2:31 behind Gina Crawford, 2 seconds back of Wendy McAlpine and 2:19 ahead of Gerdes. By 28 km on the bike leg, Bremer surged to the lead and rocketed away to a by-far women's-best 5:03:54 split that gave her a 12:38 lead over Gerdes (women’s 2nd-fastest 5:13:54 split), 16:28 over Dimity-Lee Duke and 23:56 over Wendy McAlpine.

By 16 km into the run, Gerdes cut Bremer’s lead to 8:25, 4 minutes lost with 26 km to go. Neither woman was surrendering, but Gerdes continued to run at 4:06 per kilometer pace compared to Bremer’s 4:21/km rate which would leave Bremer with the win.

At 32km, Bremer’s lead was down to 2:21 and eroding fast as Gerdes maintained a 4:09 per km pace while Bremer was fading with a 4:30 pace. At 37km Gerdes passed Bremer and closed with a 2:56:10 marathon to finish in 9:10:28 with a 3:06 margin over Bremer (3:11:46 run).

This was Gerdes’ second Ironman victory, after her breakthrough win at Ironman Switzerland last year.

Men

Clayton Fettell and Josh Amberger led the swim with equal 43:47 splits that gave them a 51 seconds lead on Michael Fox, 54s on Casey Munro, 55 seconds on David Dellow 58 seconds on Luke Bell, 3:06 on Paul Ambrose and 3:13 on Reed.

By 40km of the bike, Fettell pushed to a 2:30 lead on Amberger, who fell into a pack that included Dellow, bell and Munro. Halfway through the ride, Fettell increased his lead to 6:12 over Reed, who led a tight pack that included Ambrose, Fox, Amberger, Dellow, Munro and Bell. Dougal Allan, a famed New Zealand adventure racer who made the podium, at Ironman Sweden last year, cut 2 minutes off his 13 minute deficit after the swim and was headed for a race-best 4:27:51 bike split.

By T2, Fettell finished his brave solo ride with a 2nd-best 4:29:14 split that gave him an 8:24 lead on Reed, 8:26 on Dellow, 10:49 on Fox, 11:23 on Allan and 13:27 on Amberger who faded with a 4:42:29 bike split.

While Fettell soldiered steadily on, Reed went to work like a lumberjack chopping a tree and cut Fettell’s lead to 5:22 after 10km, 3:39 after 16 km and 1:28 after 21 km. At the 26km mark, Fettell surrendered his long-held and fell steadily back. At 30km, Reed held a 4 minutes lead on Fettell, who was holding off Dellow and Fox.

At the finish, Reed’s 2:51:32 run brought him to the finish in 8:16:34 with a 5:44 lead on runner-up Dellow, whose 2:57:23 run brought him past 3rd-place Fettell in the final kilometers.

The win was Reed's first at the Ironman distance, coming after years of great 70.3 results.

Ironman Australia
Port Macquarie, Australia
May 1, 2016
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Women

1. Beth Gerdes (USA) 9:10:28
2. Michelle Bremer (NZL) 9:13:34
3. Dimity-Lee Duke (AUS) 9:42:16
4. Melanie Burke (NZL) 9:56:54
5. Tamsyn Hayes (NZL) 10:07:41

Men

1. Tim Reed (AUS) 8:16:34
2. David Dellow (AUS) 8:22:18
3. Clayton Fettell (AUS) 8:23:22
4. Michael Fox (AUS) 8:26:12
5. Dougal Allan (NZL) 8:29:15