Michael Raelert stormed to the win at Ironman 70.3 Mandurah with a superbly fast 3:35:55. The talented German had been plagued by injuries and other setbacks and had virtually disappeared for about a year, but showed signs of what we have been missing when he won Ironman 70.3 Rügen (duathlon) and finished 3rd at Challenge Walchsee in September. Aussie Annabel Luxford had to run down German Anja Beranek to take the women's title. Beranek had pulled away to a nice lead with a strong bike effort, but in the end it was not enough.

The men

Michael Raelert led the men out of the water in a quick 20:07 with Christian Kemp a second behind, and Ruedi Wild at 20:11 leading a group that contained many of the contenders that included Brad Kahlefeldt, Luke Bell, Tim Reed and Craig Alexander.

Kahlefeldt dropped out early with a reported flat tire, and Wild and Alexander fell back as Raelert pushed the pace on the bike. Reed, Bell and Chris Kemp did not let him go and at 28km the 4 in the front had established a 40 second advantage over Wild and Alexander. The advantage grew steadily from there and when Raelert reached T2 just seconds ahead of Reed, Bell and Kemp his advantage over Alexander was pretty much 4 minutes. His bike time was an impressive 2:00:38 and Reed managed to top that by 2 seconds, and Bell managed to be even faster.

Out on the run Reed held on to Raelert the longest but eventually the budgie smuggler had to let the German go. At the 6km point the two were still running together but then Raelert snapped the elastic cord and pulled away further and further. He was running on World Record pace but in the end narrowly missed it with a still fantastic 3:35:55 and a 1:12:45 run

The women

Annabel Luxford was first out of the water in the women’s race with a 21:46 split. Rebekah Keat was next in 21:57 and Rachel Joyce, Caroline Steffen and Anja Beranek all right there too. Hauschild swam 24:05 and had Jean Collonge near her who is known for her bike prowess

Beranek however put on a show on the bike and dropped all the other females that came out of the water near her. At 45km she was up 1:09 on Luxford, 1:38 on Steffen, 3:07 on Keat, 3:29 on Joyce and 4:13 on Hauschildt. She then virtually doubled that advantage over Luxford by the time she reached T2, but Steffen and Hauschildt stayed closer on pace with the German during the last half of the bike.

Out on the run Beranek looked good but Luxford looked better and Steffen too was running well. At the halfway mark of the run the lead of Beranek over Luxford was down to under a minute, and Steffen was now at 1:06 and Hauschildt at 1:51. Joyce however had dropped back too much on the bike to be in the mix for the podium. A few km later Luxford pulled past Beranek and took the lead. Her closing 1:24:12 run gave Luxford the win in 4:02:20. Steffen also ran past Beranek to capture second place in 4:03:08 and Nikki Butterfield rounded out the podium in 4:03:49. Beranek finished 4th in 4:04:24. Joyce hung tough and finished 5th.

Ironman 70.3 Mandurah
Mandurah, Australia / November 9, 2014
1.9km swim / 90km bike / 21km run

Top men

1. Michael Raelert (GER) 3:35:55
2. Tim Reed (AUS) 3:38:42
3. Chris Kemp (AUS) 3:39:48
4. Luke Bell (AUS) 3:43:49
5. Ruedi Wild (SUI) 3:47:26
6. Craig Alexander (AUS) 3:48:38
7. Denis Chevrot (FRA) 3:50:06
8. James Bowstead (NZL) 3:53:09
9. Matt Burton (AUS) 3:54:20
10. Simon Billeau (FRA) 3:58:03

Top women

1. Annabel Luxford (AUS) 4:02:20
2. Caroline Steffen (SUI) 4:03:08
3. Nikki Butterfield (AUS) 4:03:49
4. Anja Beranek (GER) 4:04:24
5. Rachel Joyce (GBR) 4:08:41
6. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 4:11:00
7. Mareen Hufe (GER) 4:14:50
8. Jean Collonge (FRA) 4:17:40
9. Michelle Duffield (AUS) 4:21:56
10. Katey Gibb (AUS) 4:29:24