Paul Matthews of Australia dominated the men’s field thanks to a race-best 1:12:45 run and Chrissie Wellington overcame Leanda Cave’s 3-minute lead at T2 with a sizzling 1:16:41 run to take her third straight win at Ironman 70.3 Kansas Sunday in Lawrence.

Matthews’s race-best 24:39 swim led a pack of six chasers by a few seconds, then his second-best 2:10:41 bike brought him into T2 virtually tied with 2009 Kansas 70.3 winner Luke Bell. But on the run, Matthews put a chokehold on the race with a 1:12:45 half marathon that brought him to the line in 3:49:44 and a 6-minutes, 2-seconds margin of victory over David Kahn (1:17:08 run), with Bell (1:19:00 run) taking third place another 27 seconds behind Kahn.

Leanda Cave led the swim in 26:49, which gave her a 31-seconds margin over Tami Ritchie and 52 seconds over Wellington with all other chasers over 30 minutes. Cave stretched her lead over Wellington to 2:59 at T2 with a race-best 2:22:02 bike, with 8 minutes on the next closest pursuer Whitney Garcia.

Cave gave it her best shot with a 2nd-best 1:23:53 run, but had to surrender to the inevitable about halfway through the 13.1-mile run as Wellington showed she was keen on establishing herself once again as the fastest long course runner with a smashing fast 1:16:41 half marathon. As impressive as that run was, Wellington was 1:29 slower than her 2010 winning run.

Wellington hit the tape in 4:11:08 with a 4 minutes, 5 seconds margin of victory over Cave – a fine effort in her first outing after a mid-May bike crash that left her with minor injuries. Still, she lost the race with the 2010 model Wellington, who crossed the tape in 4:07:49.

Ironman 70.3 Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
June 12, 2011
D 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 ni.

Men

1. Paul Matthews (AUS) 3:49:44
2. David Kahn (USA) 3:55:46
3. Luke Bell (AUS) 3:56:13
4. Romain Guillaume (FRA) 3:59:17
5. Joe McDaniel (USA) 4:00:53
6. Andres Castillo ( ) 4:03:22
7. Brent Poulson ( ) 4:04:18
8. Joe Umphenour (USA) 4:05:18
9. Tony White (USA) 4:05:56
10. Torsten Abel (GER) 4:06:33

Women

1. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 4:11:08
2. Leanda Cave (GBR) 4:15:13
3. Whitney Garcia (USA) 4:27:17
4. Madeline Oldfield (AUS) 4:29:18
5. Jackie Arendt (USA) 4:32:39
6. Lesley Paterson (GBR) 4:33:05
7. Tami Ritchie (USA) 4:34:27
8. Lauren Capone (USA) 4:38:26 * W18-24
9. Sarah Piampiano ( ) 4:42:42 * W30-34
10. Lesley Smith (USA) 4:42:59