The Kona runner-up combo’d an Olympic distance race and a proposal in the Bahamas. Kiwis dominated a half in their South Island. An American mermaid put together a well-balanced race to win her first Ironman in Brazil. A decorated Brit won her first Challenge in Forster. The French dominated a heartbreakingly beautiful race in the Indian Ocean. And Danielle married a handsome swell in Colorado.

Mitchell Robbins and Liz Blatchford win Challenge Forster half

Liz Blatchford dominated the women's field with a wire-to-wire victory and Port Macquairie triathlete Mitchell Robbins edged fellow Aussie Casey Munro by less than a minute to take the elite titles at the second edition of Challenge Forster.

Women

Blatchford seemed to be back on track after a decent but disappointing 10th place finish at the Ironman World Championship last month as she carved out a 3-minute lead over Lisa Marangon with race-best swim and bike splits. Blatchford then put the race away with a 1:25:19 run that brought her to the finish in 4:15:02 with an 11-minute margin of victory over Marangon and 13:05 advantage over 3rd-place finisher Jessica Fleming.

Blatchford said she had a few moments of doubt on the bike leg before reaching T2 with a substantial lead. “Out on the bike, I was wondering, ‘Is Kona coming up to me,’ but at the end of the bike, I managed to get a bit of time on the other girls,” said Blatchford. “I took it out a bit easier on the run to see what my legs would have and just built into it and got better and better as the day went on.”

Men

Robbins came back from a 6 minutes deficit after the bike leg with a race-best 1:16:07 run to quickly dispose of a fading Fettell and pass Munro and Clayton Fettell with 6 kilometers to go to earn one of the biggest wins of his career.

Fettell led the two-lap, seems-like-an-Olympic-distance swim with an 18:02 split, followed closely by Sam Appleton, Matthew Pellow, Michael Fox, Casey Munro and Sam Appleton.

Fettell, Appleton and Munro charged to the front on the bike with Robbins gradually dropping back. Near the end, Fettell charged into T2 with a 2:07:51 split which gave him a 1:25 lead on Appleton and Munro and a whopping 6 minutes on Robbins, who lost 5 minutes with a 2:12:52 split.

Fettell maintained his lead through the halfway point of the 21 kilometer run, although Munro cut his margin to 41 seconds at the 13k mark and passed him around 14k. Just one kilometer later Robbins, zooming along at 3:20 per kilometer pace, passed them both on his way to a 3:50:34 finish and a 51 seconds margin on runner-up Munro. Ryan Waddington, in his first pro race, unleashed a 2nd-best 1:17:45 run to nip Fettell and take the final spot on the podium.

“To be quite frank, I surprised myself here,” said Robbins. “I was a bit crook [ill] during the week I thought I wasn’t going to come. But to win is just fantastic.”

Challenge Forster
Forster, Australia
November 9, 2014
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Mitchell Robbins (AUS) 3:50:34
2. Casey Munro (AUS) 3:51:25
3. Ryan Waddington (AUS) 3:54:26
4. Clayton Fettell (AUS) 3:55:24
5. Matthew Pellow (AUS) 3:56:40

Women

1. Liz Blatchford (GBR) 4:15:02
2. Lisa Marangon (AUS) 4:26:02
3. Jessica Fleming (AUS) 4:28:07
4. Erin Furness (NZL) 4:35:27
5. Michelle Gailey (AUS) 4:38:02

Tim Don and Alicia Kaye win UWC Bahamas Triathlon

Ironman 70.3 Worlds bronze medalist Tim Don continued his good 2014 form with an Olympic distance victory and Alicia Kaye won one for the non-drafters as she topped WTS world champion Gwen Jorgensen at the UWC Bahamas Triathlon.

Women

While Gwen Jorgensen dominated the draft-legal world with a victory at the World Triathlon Series Grand Final and the season long world championship points chase, Alicia Kaye was every bit as dominant in her non-drafting realm as she won Minneapolis, New York, Chicago and Oceanside on her way to a second straight Life Time Fitness Series title.

Sunday they met in the Bahamas with Kaye’s non-drafting rules prevailing - and the race turned out to be a textbook clash of the two triathlon philosophies.

While Lauren Brandon dominated the swim with a 17:47 split, Jorgensen’s 18:22 split gave her a 3 seconds advantage over Kaye. Game on.

On the bike leg, Jorgensen’s 58:50 split showed enough strength to hang with an ITU lead pack - but not nearly enough to hang with non-drafting short courser Kaye (54:48) and long courser Heather Wurtele (56:06).

Facing a 3:49 deficit at T2, Jorgensen unleashed her beast of a run, but her 33:53 split was not enough to overtake Kaye’s 36:19. Kaye thus hit the finish in 1:50:36 with a 1:28 margin of victory over Jorgensen and 5:15 over 3rd-place finisher Heather Wurtele (37:49 run split).

It can be argued that Jorgensen has been out of serious competitive fitness longer than Kaye, who won her series title a few weeks ago, but the Canadian-born woman made a strong case for the excellence of non-drafting triathletes against a dominating presence on the prestigious ITU draft-legal circuit.

Men

Unlike the women's contest, the men’s swim was hotly contested as Davide Giardini led the way with a 17:16 split, followed closely by Jarrod Shoemaker (17:18), Barrett Brandon (17:20), Tim Don (17:22), Luke McKenzie (17:25) and Ben Hoffman (17:27).

The battle continued on the bike leg as top contenders were whittled to four – McKenzie (50:59), Don (51:08), Brandon (51:12) and Giardini (51:14). Crucially, Shoemaker fell back with a 55:17 split.

Whereupon the man they call The Don left the lead pack in his dust with a second-best 33:11 run split that brought him to the finish in 1:42:38 with a 1:06 margin of victory over Giardini (34:09 run) and 1:57 over 3rd-place finisher McKenzie (35:07 run). Shoemaker crushed the field with a 31:20 run, but his bike leg left him 4th – 17 seconds behind McKenzie.

UWC Bahamas Triathlon
Nassau, Bahamas
November 9, 2014
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Men 2014

1. Tim Don (GBR) 1:42:38
2. Davide Giardini (ITA) 1:43:44
3. Luke McKenzie (AUS) 1:44:35
4. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 1:44:52
5. Barrett Brandon (USA) 1:46:18
6. Ben Hoffman (USA) 1:46:42

Women 2014

1. Alicia Kaye (USA) 1:50:36
2. Gwen Jorgensen (USA) 1:52:04
3. Heather Wurtele (CAN) 1:55:51
4. Lauren Brandon (USA) 1:57:24
5. Anna Cleaver (NZL) 1:59:07

Guilherme Manocchio and Haley Chura win Ironman Fortaleza in Brazil

Guilherme Manocchio of Brazil overtook multiple Ironman winner Eneko Llanos of Spain late in the run and super-swimmer Haley Chura of the U.S. posted a well-balanced swim, bike and run splits to dominate the women's field at Ironman Fortaleza in Brazil.

Men

Balazs Csoke of Hungary led the swim in 49:49, followed by Ivan Risti of Italy (51:42), Bryan Rhodes of New Zealand (51:46), Daniel Fontana of Italy (51:47), Llanos (51:56), Thiago Vinhal of Brazil (51:58) with Manocchio another 20 seconds back.

Llanos charged to the lead with a race-fastest 4:27:09 bike split which gave him a 4:50 lead on Manocchio, 4:54 on Rhodes, 4:56 on Daniel Fontana, 9:09 on Csoke, and 15:09 on Stefan Schmid of Germany.

Llanos, coming off a DNF on the run at Kona, started well on the marathon, but surrendered 1:13 to Manocchio by 11k. At 31k, Manocchio sliced Llanos’ lead to 40 seconds, then seized the lead at the 35 kilometer mark. By the finish, Manocchio’s second-best 3:02:22 marathon brought him to the finish in 8:30:15 with a 1:47 margin of victory over Llanos, who faded with an uncharacteristically slow 3:09:07 run. Thiago Vinhal of Brazil made up for time lost on the bike leg (4:56:47) with a race-fastest 2:58:18 run to take 3rd – 22:37 back of the winner.

Women

Haley Chura, who turned pro late in 2012 with a 5th place at Ironman Arizona, won every swim but had only one major pro victory prior to Fortaleza, a 1st at the 2013 edition of Ironman 70.3 New Orleans. In Fortaleza, it seems as if everything Chura had learned in two years of pro competition was put to use.

Her 51:56 swim split was tied for 4th-best including the men – and was 2 minutes faster than Caroline Gregory. It was also a few time zones better than the women who offer her the most resistance on the day – 5:52 better than Mette Moe Pettersen of Norway, 20:27 better than Ariane Monticeli and a stunning 25:14 faster than 3-time Ironman winner Jessie Donavan.

Chura secured her vast lead with a race-best 4:57:46 bike split that was 1:49 better than Donavan 14 minutes better than Moe Pettersen, and 13 minutes faster than Monticeli. Chura started the run with a 15 minutes lead on Moe Pettersen, 26 minutes on Donavan 29 minutes on Gregory and 34 minutes on Monticeli.

While Donavan may have had dreams of seriously chopping that lead, Chura slammed that door with a 2nd-best 3:15:59 run that gave back just 1:59 to Monticeli and added 15 minutes to her advantage on Donavan, 35 minutes on Moe Pettersen and 28 minutes on Gregory.

Chura finished in an impressive 9:09:20 with a 32:35 margin of victory on Monticeli and 42:13 on 3rd place finisher Donavan.

Ironman Fortaleza
Fortaleza, Brazil
November 9, 2014
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Guilherme Valenza Manocchio (BRA) 8:30:16
2. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 8:32:02
3. Thiago Vinhal (BRA) 8:52:54
4. Stefan Schmid (GER) 8:58:08
5. Frank Silvestrin Souza (BRA) 8:58:54

Women

1. Haley Chura (USA) 9:09:20
2. Ariane Monticeli (BRA) 9:41:55
3. Jessie Donavan (USA) 9:51:33
4. Mette Pettersen Moe (NOR) 9:58:51
5. Caroline Gregory (USA) 10:06:48

Dylan McNeice and Hannah Maher win Rolf Prima Half Ironman in New Zealand

Dylan McNeice, a New Zealand pro who won the full distance Challenge Wanaka and the half distance Challenge Taiwan earlier this year, added a dominating win at the Rolf Prima half Ironman distance event in the South Island of New Zealand to his excellent race résumé.

McNeice finished in 4:04:07 with a 24:53 margin of victory over Ben Phillips of Australia and 28:50 over 3rd place finisher Matt Mace of New Zealand.

Hannah Maher led a 1-2-3 New Zealand sweep of the women's podium. Maher won the women’s 20-29 age group and the overall women's title in a time of 5:14:01, which was 50 seconds better than overall runner-up Karen Rasmussen and 7:18 better than 3rd overall Carol Cooper.

Rolf Prima Half Ironman
Ashburton, New Zealand
November 8, 2014
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Dylan McNeice (NZL) 4:04:07
2. Ben Phillips (AUS) 4:29:00
3. Matt Mace (NZL) 4:32:57 * M30-39
4. Ian Graham (AUS) 4:35:35 * M40-49
5. Russell Harrison-Kirk (NZL) 4:38:31 * M30-39

Women

1. Hannah Maher (NZL) 5:14:01 *F20-29
2. Karen Rasmussen (NZL) 5:14:51 *F30-39
3. Carol Cooper (NZL) 5:21:19 * F40-49
4. Trish Hastie (NZL) 5:28:36 * F30-39
5. Meagan Maher (NZL) 5:28:41 * F20-29

Frederic Belaubre and Anne Tabarant win Indian Ocean Triathlon

The Republic of Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometers off the southeast coast of the African continent, boasts that its Indian Ocean Triathlon is “simply the most beautiful Triathlon in the world.” From the pictures we have seen over the years, that is an entirely defensible claim. This time around, French Olympian Frederic Belaubre and French pro Anne Tabarant won top honors.

Indian Ocean Triathlon
Mauritius
November 8, 2014
S 1.8k / B 55k / R 12k

Results

Men

1. Frederic Belaubre (FRA) 2:47:42
2. Toumy Dehgam (FRA) 2:49:41
3. Olivier Marceau (SUI) 2:59:12

Women

1. Anne Tabarant (FRA) 3:18:08
2. Catherine Gance (FRA) 3:42:38
3. Natalie Van Berk (RSA) 3:52:22

Ironman Boulder champion Danielle Kehoe weds Jeff Mack


Ironman Boulder champion Danielle Kehoe married long-time boyfriend Jeff Mack at the Shrine of St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Arvada, Colorado this weekend. The picture of the happy couple was taken after they both finished Ironman Boulder.

Ben Hoffman gets engaged to Kelsey Deery in Nassau, Bahamas

Ironman World Championship runner-up Ben Hoffman asked long-time girlfriend Kelsey Deery to marry while in Nassau, Bahamas for the UWC Triathlon.

Hoffman appears to be both clever and romantic as he hid the ring in a seashell for Kelsey to discover during a snorkel session in the clear blue Bahamian waters.