Ritchie Nicholls, a 25-year-old ITU Olympic distance triathlete moving up in distance, and Eimear Mullan of Ireland, the defending Ironman and Ironman 70.3 UK champion, won the 2013 edition of Ironman 70.3 UK Sunday.
Men
Nicholls broke open his duel with 2006 ITU World Champion Tim Don and Fraser Cartmell with a race-best run that left his rivals 5 minutes behind at the line.
Don led the swim with a 23:56 split, trailed closely by Cartmell (23:57), Will Clarke (23:59) Lawrence Fanous of Jordan (24:00) and Nicholls (24:01), all of whom were a minute and a half ahead of the next best competitor, Uwe Widmann of Germany.
Don (2:32:45), Cartmell (2:32:47) and Nicholls (2:32:49) rode in a tight but legal pack, dropping former ITU short course star Will Clarke who fell out of contention for the win with a 2:41:01 split.
After the notoriously demanding 56-mile bike course on the rugged hills of Exmoor National Park, it was the 25-year-old Nicholls, not the 35-year-old former Olympic distance World Champion and 2010 Hy-Vee winner, nor the 31-year-old long distance star Cartmell, who had the legs. Nicholls posted a race-best 1:14:39 split that brought him to the finish in 4:15:04 with a 5:03 margin on runner-up Don and 5:26 on 3rd-place Cartmell. After his below-par bike, Clarke made up ground on Don and Cartmell with a 2nd-fastest 1:16:31 half marathon run split that left him 4th, 5:21 back of Cartmell.
After a frustrating 2012 at the Olympic distance on the ITU circuit where he finished 42nd at Mooloolaba, 39th at Eilat, 37th at Kitzbuhel and 49th at Stockholm, Nicholls seems to have taken to the middle distance under the guidance of Brett Sutton at Team TBB. Last month he placed 5th at the ETU Middle Distance Championship in Barcelona where his 1:14:39 run was second best only to race winner Javier Gomez, the Olympic silver medalist.
In addition to the satisfaction earned by defeating a World Champion, Nicholls can take pride in setting a course record which was 4:41 faster than Philip Graves' 2012 winning time.
Women
Defending ironman 70.3 UK champion Eimear Mullan started her day 3:05 down to Holly Lawrence of Great Britain’s race-fastest 25:55 swim split and 1:50 back of Carol Bridge’s 27:10.
Mullan’s race-best 2:55:08 bike split trimmed 1:25 from Lawrence’s lead. Then the Irish long course star’s 2nd-best 1:28:19 run finished the job, outpacing Lawrence’s half marathon by 2:35 and giving Mullan a 1:02 margin of victory in a winning time of 4:56:59. Germany’s Kristin Moeller combined a 9th-best 30:35 swim, 5th-best 3:00:50 bike split and race-best 1:25:46 run to finish 3rd in 5:02:33.
Ironman 70.3 UK
Wimbleball, Great Britain
June 16, 2013
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Ritchie Nicholls (GBR) 4:15:04
2. Tim Don (GBR) 4:20:07
3. Fraser Cartmell (GBR) 4:20:30
4. Will Clarke (GBR) 4:25:51
5. Joe Skipper (GBR) 4:33:35
6. Uwe Widmann (GER) 4:35:28
7. Sam Baxter (GBR) 4:38:30 * M30-34
8. Nick Baldwin (SEY) 4:41:28
9. Lawrence Fanous (JOR) 4:42:13
10. Peter Wilby (GBR) 4:43:39 * M30-34
Women
1. Eimear Mullan (IRL) 4:56:59
2. Holly Lawrence (GBR) 4:58:01
3. Kristin Möller (GER) 5:02:33
4. Amy Forshaw (GBR) 5:12:38
5. Barbara Scherrer (SUI) 5:13:53 * W25-29
6. Carol Bridge (GBR) 5:14:55
7. Alison Rowatt (GBR) 5:20:13 * W25-29
8. Julia Grant (NZL) 5:21:08
9. Vicky Gill (GBR) 5:22:19 * W30-34
10. Jennifer Duffy (IRL) 5:27:13 * W35-39
