Jimmy Johnsen of Denmark won with a race-best run and Britta Martin, a German-born New Zealander, outran Rebekah Keat in sizzling duel down the stretch at Ironman Western Australia on a tough day with choppy water, a windy bike and searing heat in Busselton.
The Men
Johnsen, whose first Iron-distance win was at Challenge Barcelona in 2010, combined a 14th-best 51:51 swim, 8th-fastest 4:38:38 bike split, and race-best 2:54:42 run in searing heat to finish in 8:29:06 with a 5:43 margin of victory over runner-up Horst Reichel of Germany and 8:59 over 3rd-place Matty White of Australia.
Reichel played his cards carefully, combining a 48:50 swim and a 4:39:52 bike split to hit T2 in 3rd place. Reichel took the lead 9 kilometers into the run before yielding to Matty White at the 15 kilometer mark and hung closely to White through 25k. At 30 kilometers, Johnsen took the lead and ran off to victory. Reichel’s 3:01:50 run was good enough to hold second place while White faded to 3rd place at the line with a 3:03:57 marathon.
Jason Shortis, in his remarkable 71st Ironman race, overcame a 53:56 swim and 4:42:11 bike split with a 3rd-best 2:58:19 run to take 4th place overall, just 25 seconds behind Matty White.
Australian age grouper Justin Brewer, a 21-year-old Sydney native, burst out of the swim first with a race-best 46:59 and held on to the lead on elapsed time with a 4th-best 4:35:48 bike split but faded to 10th overall with a 3:25:12 run which left him 2nd age grouper behind 7th-place finisher Leigh Chapman.
Race favorite Timo Bracht from Germany had a flat early on in the bike segment and lost a significant amount of time. He started the run well behind the leaders and pulled out 10k into marathon. Mitch Anderson, 37-year-old Australian pro, added a race-fastest 4:30:40 bike split to an ordinary 53:53 swim to lead all the pros into T2. But Anderson had shot his bolt on the bike and faded to 20th overall with a 3:38:28 run to finish in 9:07:13. Simon Billeau of France, who finished his 2nd-best 4:34:30 bike split in 2nd, faded to 9th overall with a 3:18:55 run.
"I am very happy to win here at Ironman Western Australia. It was here I did my first ever Ironman back in 2006. I was third that day, 4th in 2008 and 3rd again in 2009. It's nice to finally get a win here," said Johnsen to slowtwitch. "Not many believed that I could back it up after Ironman Cozumel two weeks ago so I guess I had a bit to prove this was a good decision."
The Women
Martin, who is coming off a breakthrough Ironman 70.3 win at Port Macquarie on October 27, overcame an 8:15 deficit to Rebekah Keat’s race-fastest 53:58 swim with a 2nd-best 5:00:11 bike split and a race-best 3:06:10 marathon to pass her Australian rival with 3 kilometers to go.
Martin, energized by her role as the predator running down the 2nd-fastest Ironman woman in history [Keat’s 8:39 at Challenge Roth in 2009], sped on to finish in 9:13:00 with a 1:49 margin of victory over runner-up Keat and 6:48 over 3rd-place finisher Rebecca Hoschke of Australia.
Keat held the lead from the 20 kilometer mark of the run until the kilometer 39, but at that point her 3:11:57 run succumbed to the New Zealander but it was enough to fend off the 3:09:26 charge of Hoschke by 5:09.
Bree Wee took over the lead from the Netherland’s Mirjam Weerd at the 110 kilometer mark of the bike leg, which she finished in a race-best 4:48:59. Bree held first until she was passed by Keat at about halfway through the marathon which she finished in 3:26:59 to finish 4th, 4:52 back of Hoschke and 1:08 ahead of place Mirjam Weerd, who trailed home 5th with a 3:12:24 marathon.
SunSmart Ironman Western Australia
Busselton, Australia
December 9, 2012
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.
Results
Men
1. Jimmy Johnsen (DEN) 8:29:06
2. Horst Reichel (GER) 8:34:49
3. Matty White (AUS) 8:38:05
4. Jason Shortis (AUS) 8:38:30
5. Petr Vabrousek (CZE) 8:41:47
6. Johan Borg (AUS 8:43:55
7. Leigh Chapman (AUS) 8:48:29 *M30-34
8. Ben Cotter (CAN) 8:48:45
9. Simon Billeau (FRA) 8:51:18
10. Justin Brewer (AUS) 8:52:56 *M18-24
Women
1. Britta Martin (NZL) 9:13:00
2. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 9:14:39
3. Rebecca Hoschke (AUS) 9:19:48
4. Bree Wee (USA) 9:24:40
5. Mirjam Weerd (NED) 9:25:48
6. Nicole Ward (AUS) 9:43:29
7. Nera Jareb (AUS) 9:50:51 *F30-34
8. Megumi Shigaki (JPN) 9:58:58
