After winning the Accenture Chicago Triathlon a few weeks earlier, Stuart Hayes of Great Britain and Becky Lavelle of Los Gatos, California returned to the top of the podiums again at the 2008 Nautica Malibu Olympic distance triathlon.

Hayes’ 17:55 swim at Zuma Beach was 1 second behind Aussie Paul Matthews, 1 second faster than Aussie Stephen Hackett, 2 seconds faster than John Kenny of Atlantic City, New Jersey, 3 seconds faster than fellow Brit Oliver Freeman, 4 seconds faster than New Zealander Bryan Rhodes, and 6 seconds faster than 3-time US Olympian Hunter Kemper. But before long, burly Bjorn Andersson of Sweden took the lead with a monster bike split of 54:07, 1:42 faster than Freeman and 1:46 faster than Hayes. By the time Andersson hit T2, he had an almost 2 minute lead on a chasing pack of about 10 riders that contained all the usual suspects. Once on the run, Hayes and the other fleet-footed ITU pros ran down a tiring Andersson, whose 37:38 run left him 12th. Hayes’ flying 29:58 run brought him to the line in 1:45:51, 25 seconds ahead of runner-up and fellow Brit Oliver Freeman, and earned him a $10,000 check. Freeman’s second-best 30:10 10k run held off US Olympian Matty Reed, who took third another 63 seconds back.

The women's race also had quite an impressive lineup, and Becky Lavelle beat all the competitors out of the water with a race-best 18:51 swim, two seconds in front of two-time ITU Under 23 silver medalist Jasmine Oeinck and 22 seconds ahead of two-time US Olympian (2000 in water polo and 2008 in triathlon) Julie Swail Ertel. Lavelle’s second-best 1:02:07 bike split put her 1:36 ahead of Oeinck and 2:42 ahead of Ertel starting the run. Tyler Stewart, who set a new world-best Ironman-distance bike split in 2007, showed her cycling prowess at Malibu with a race-best 1:00:57 split (just 5 minutes back of the men) but her glacial 24:40 swim had cost her 5 minutes and Stewart’s 36:25 run was only enough to bring her up to fourth overall at the line. Lavelle cruised to a 1-minute 34-second margin of victory in 1:59:34, capped by a second-best 36:10 run. Julie Swail’s race-best 34:59 split overtook Oeinck for second place. Oeinck’s 37:25 run was enough to hold off Stewart for third.

Lavelle’s $10,000 win at Malibu capped a marvelous month in which she also won Chicago and Los Angeles – a streak of three straight major North American non drafting titles.


Top 10 men

1. Stuart Hayes (GBR) 1:45:51 $10,000
2. Oliver Freeman (GBR) 1:46:16 $5,000
3. Matt Reed (USA) 1:47:19 $2,500
4. Todd Leckie (GBR) 1:47:21 $1,500
5. Hunter Kemper (USA) 1:47:50 $1,000
6. Stephen Hackett (AUS) 1:48:42
7. Tim O’Donnell (USA) 1:48:53
8. Fabio Carvalho (CHI) 1:49:02
9. John Kenny (USA) 1:49:44
10. Paul Matthews (AUS) 1:51:19


Top 10 women

1. Becky Lavelle (USA) 1:59:34 $10,000
2. Julie Swail Ertel USA) 2:01:08 $5,000
3. Jasmine Oeinck (USA) 2:02:33 $2,500
4. Tyler Stewart USA) 2:05:14 $1,500
5. Amanda Stevens (USA) 2:05:33 $1,000
6. Kelly Handel (USA) 2:07:19
7. Amanda Felder (USA) 2:08:27
8. Fiona Docherty (NZL) 2:09:40
9. Jennifer Garrison (USA) 2:10:46
10. Kathryn Donovan (USA) 2:13:08