Australian Luke McKenzie and Great Britain’s Liz Blatchford won Ironman Cairns Sunday. In the Ironman 70.3 contest held the same day, long time Olympic distance star Courtney Atkinson held off fellow ITU short courser Brad Kahlefeldt for the overall win. Samantha Warriner, still going strong at age 42, held off Kiyomi Niwata for the women’s pro win while 36-year-old amateur Kym Jaenke set the fastest women’s overall time.
Ironman Cairns Men
To put it simply, McKenzie won it on the bike. The 6-time Ironman distance winner started with a 2nd-best 49:47 swim that was 1:54 behind Clayton Fettell and 8 seconds better than Chris McCormack and 2:38 ahead of Tim Berkel.
McKenzie then proceeded to obliterate his opposition on the bike, posting a sizzling fast 4:21:52 split that was 13:44 better than the next best effort, Clayton Fettell’s 4:35:36, 16:46 better than Jason Shortis, 17:32 better than Todd Israel and 19:05 better than Tim Berkel’s ride.
McKenzie began the run with a 12:02 lead on Fettell, 19:29 on Israel, 21:46 on Berkel and 21:49 on Chris McCormack.
By the finish, McKenzie’s 5th-fastest 3:01:32 marathon was enough to get him to the finish in 8:17:43 and hold off Berkel;s race-fastest 2:44:24 run by a 4:33 margin of victory. McCormack’s 2nd-best 2:54:52 run advanced him to 3rd place, 15:07 after McKenzie.
“To win my first Ironman in Australia and Queensland is very special,” McKenzie told Ironman.com media. “That is my sixth Ironman title and I am just stoked with it. There are just such great athletes here today – to beat guys like Chris McCormack, Tim Berkel, and Clayton Fettell is incredible.”
Berkel had a hard time garnering his runner-up finish. “The day didn’t start out very well,” he told Ironman.com. “I had a bad swim and I had to work really hard to get up with the boys. Once I got up to the boys, I was happy but then I got a penalty which really hurt and it was very frustrating so I had to work extra hard to get back there. Full credit to Luke – he smashed the run.”
Ironman Cairns Women
Liz Blatchford won her first Ironman title after a long, hard fought duel with multiple Ironman winner Gina Crawford of New Zealand.
Blatchford, another Olympic distance star who has switched to long course, used her ITU swim skills to emerge from the water 2nd, in 54:13, 1:01 behind Anna Mendes of Australia and 1:30 ahead of Crawford.
On the bike, Stephanie Jones of the U.S. made up a lot of ground after her 1:06:41 swim with a race-fastest 5:04:09 bike split. But it was not enough to crack the 1-2 standing of Blatchford (5:10:23 bike split) and Crawford (2nd-best 5:08:26 bike split), who retook the lead from Blatchford.
Blatchford, who must have done a lot of marathon training, ran away from Crawford’s 3:13:09 marathon with a race-winning 3:09:38 split that brought her to the finish in 9:19:51 with a winning margin of 3:23 over Crawford.
Ironman Cairns
Cairns, Australia
June 9, 2013
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.
Results
Men
1. Luke McKenzie (AUS) 8:17:43
2. Tim Berkel (AUS) 8:22:16
3. Chris McCormack (AUS) 8:32:50
4. Jason Shortis (AUS) 8:38:21
5. Clayton Fettell (AUS) 8:41:42
6. Matty White (AUS) 8:51:18
7. Todd Israel (AUS) 8:58:38
8. Ben Bell (AUS) 9:03:23 * M35-39
9. Simon Cochrane (NZL) 9:05:48
10. Amos Gollach (AUS) 9:06:21 * M18-24
Women
1. Liz Blatchford (GBR) 9:19:51
2. Gina Crawford (NZL) 9:23:14
3. Stephanie Jones (USA) 9:31:46
4. Anna Ross (NZL) 9:46:28
5. Beth Walsh (USA) 9:55:23
6. Marina Jurjevic (AUS) 10:00:14 * F30-34
7. Susan Crowe (AUS) 10:04:15 * F40-44
8. Anna Mendes (AUS) 10:09:32 * F30-34
9. Michelle Gailey (AUS) 10:11:52
10. Kathleen Bourchier (AUS) 10:15:07 * F30-34
Men’s Ironman 70.3 Cairns
Two-time Olympian Courtney Atkinson and fellow Australian ITU Olympic distance star Brad Kahlefeldt started their race-long duel just 8 seconds apart with a race-best 23:17 and 3rd-best 23:25 swims. Atkinson then charged ahead with a 2:11:53 bike split which, while only 4th best in the field, was 3:05 faster than Kahlefeldt. On the run, Kahlefeldt’s race-best 1:14:22 half marathon cut 2:13 into Atkinson’s lead but left the man called Sticksy 52 seconds behind Atkinson’s winning 3:56:34 finish.
“The head wind was brutal on the run, the wind was really tough today,” Atkinson told Ironman.com media.“
“It was good for me to get second and have the short course boys go one, two,” said Kahlefeldt. “All credit to Courtney who pushed it on the bike. But that wind out there today was tough.”
Tim Reed’s race-fastest 2:10:10 bike split and 5th-fastest 1:20:10 run brought him home 3rd, 3:20 behind the winner. Ironman World Champion Pete Jacobs combined a 7th fastest 23:27 swim, 6th-best 2:14:26 bike split and 3rd-best 1:17:16 run brought him hoime 4th in 4:00:05.
Women’s Ironman 70.3 Cairns
In the women’s race, it was a wire-to-wire professional win for 42-year-old recent mother Samantha Warriner, the 2008 ITU World Championship Olympic distance bronze medalist and ITU 2008 season elite women’s number one ranked competitor. Warriner started fast with a race-best 26:46 swim that put 1:09 on her nearest pro wave contender Kiyomi Niwata and 1:11 on 36-year-old age group amateur Kym Jaenke, who started in a later amateur wave. Warriner then stepped on the gas with a race-fastest 2:27:45 bike split that was 11:01 faster than Niwata and 3:16 better than Jaenke, who was not competing for the professional purse but was 5 minutes ahead of her nearest amateur competitor Rachael Smith.
Warriner started the run well, but with a huge professional lead in hand, had the liberty to slow to a survival mode 1:38:14 run which gave back 10 minutes and 3 seconds to Niwata’s race-best 1:28:11 run -- and 4:34 to the amateur Jaenke.
Warriner’s 4:39:19 finish was good enough to hold off pro runner-up Niwata by 1 minute, 6 seconds. But Jaenke’s 1:33:40 run and well-balanced race brought her to the line in 4:38:28 – 51 seconds ahead of the top professional. Rachael Smith of Australia was runner-up to Jaenke in the amateur women’s 35-39 category and posted the 4th-fastest women’s overall time of 4:43:00. Ange Castle of Australia made the final slot on the professional women’s podium and was 5th overall woman in 4:45:40.
Many triathletes argue that the professional and amateur waves are two separate races and that amateurs can take aerodynamic benefit from passing large groups of riders on the bike leg. But Jaenke posted the women’s 3rd-fastest swim, 2nd-fastest bike split and the 5th-fastest run during a very good race for any woman triathlete regardless of starting wave or classification.
Ironman 70.3 Cairns
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 3:56:34
2. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 3:57:26
3. Tim Reed (AUS) 3:59:54
4. Pete Jacobs (AUS) 4:00:05
5. Sam Appleton (AUS) 4:03:33
6. Graham O’Grady (NZL) 4:04:22
7. Casey Munro (AUS) 4:08:18
8. Braden Currie (NZL) 4:10:30
9. Paul Dodd (AUS) 4:19:37 * M40-44
10. Sam Betten (AUS) 4:20:58
Women
1. Kym Jaenke (AUS) 4:38:28 * F35-39
2. Samantha Warriner (NZL) 4:39:19
3. Kiyomi Niwata (JPN) 4:40:25
4. Rachael Smith (AUS) 4:43:01 *F35-39
5. Ange Castle (AUS) 4:45:41
6. Matilda Raynolds (AUS) 4:46:32
7. Rebecca Hoschke (AUS) 4:49:56
8. Briarna Mackie (AUS) 4:54:08 * F25-29
9. Kristy Hallett (AUS) 4:56:13
10. Tracey Zammit (AUS) 4:56:38 * F40-44
