Michellie Jones led wire-to-wire while Oscar Galindez overtook Paul Ambrose at Mile 4 on the run to win Ironman 70.3 Cancun titles Sunday.

Jones, the triathlon legend who just turned 40, avenged a calf injury that turned her lead into a DNF in 2008 and Galindez regained the 2007 title that he lost to Chris Legh last year with dominating performances on a typically hot day in the Mexican resort on the Yucatan peninsula.

Jones combined a race-best 27:18 swim with a second-best 2:29:21 bike and a race-best 1:40:39 half marathon to finish in 4:41:48 and top runner-up Daniela Sämmler of Germany by 11 minutes 45 seconds. Sandra Soldan of Brazil managed to better Jones’ bike split by 4 seconds, but according to results surrendered an amazing 25 minutes on the swim to relegate her to 7th place.

Galindez, who was aced out by Chris Legh in Cancun last year, posted a 10th-best 27:23 swim, passed everyone but Paul Ambrose and Paul Matthews with a race-best 2:07:09 bike, then sealed the deal with a race-best 1:31:41 run that was 5 minutes better than runner-up Ambrose could muster and topped off a 4:10:22 finish that gave him a 5 minutes margin of victory.

Stephen Hackett and co-favorite Luke Bell both DNF’d.

This year’s slower overall times can be accounted for by the run. Either because this year’s course was significantly longer than standard or because of punishing weather, Galindez’s 1:31:41 run was 9 minutes slower than last year’s effort. Michellie Jones’ 1:40:39 run was 13 minutes slower than last year’s winner Kim Loeffler’s 2008 split.

Mexicana Ironman 70.3 Cancun
Cancun, Mexico
September 20, 2009
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Elite men

1. Oscar Galindez (ARG) 4:10:22
2. Paul Ambrose (GBR) 4:15:22
3. Igor Amoreli Fonseca (BRA) 4:18:43
4. Paul Matthews (AUS) 4:20:26
5. Balazs Csoke (HUN) 4:28:07

Elite women

1. Michellie Jones (AUS) 4:41:48
2. Daniela Sämmler (GER) 4:53:33
3. Kat Baker (AUS) 4:56:54
4. Julianna Batizy-Morley (USA) 5:00:27
5. Dunia Gomez Tirado (MEX) 5:05:53