Marino Vanhoenacker of Belgium and Laura Siddall of Great Britain won the overall titles at Ironman Australia in Port Macquarie.

Vanhoenacker combined a second-best 45:57 swim, a 2nd-best 4:30:57 bike split and a 3rd-quickest 2:54:12 marathon to finish in a course record 8:14:37 with a 3:33 margin of victory over Aussie Luke McKenzie and 11:48 over Kiwi Mark Bowstead.

The win was Vanhoenacker’s 17th Ironman-distance triumph, adding to 8 victories at Ironman Austria and other Ironman wins at Mont Tremblant, Chattanooga, Brazil, Canada, Frankfurt, New Zealand and Florida. Exhausted by the effort, the 41-year-old Belgian was carried from the finish line by Ironman announcer Mike Reilly and Pete Murray.

“"It was unbelievable and an uncomfortable day all day long,” Vanhoenacker told Ironman media. “I left it all out there and I'm an emotional wreck. It is indescribable. Someone has to protect me from myself - this is tough for an old man."

After her breakthrough Ironman win last year at Port Macquarie, Siddall has started even better in 2018 with wins at Ironman New Zealand and a defense of her 2017 title at Ironman Australia.

At age 37, Siddall is just getting started on a starring role at the Ironman distance as she combined a women’s 4th-best 55:48 swim, a women’s-fastest 4:56:13 bike split and women’s-best 3:10:22 marathon to finish in 9:05:59 with a whopping 23:52 margin of victory over Melanie Burke of New Zealand and 39:01 over 3rd place Kelsey Withrow of the U.S.

Siddall chased down swim leader Annabel Luxford of Australia at 151km of the bike leg, who was soon thereafter forced to withdraw with severe asthmatic symptoms.

Once Siddall went past Luxford, the battles were over. “I caught [Annabel] pretty quickly on the second lap [of the bike] and was expecting that she’d come with me,” Siddall told Paul Jobber of Local Sport. “When I looked around and she wasn’t there I suspected something wasn’t quite right.”

Siddall was exultant with her performance. In a Facebook post she wrote: "Just an incredible feeling! So special. To win last year was magic, to then return with the honour of wearing the #1 bib and to take back to back wins! Apparently now matching Chrissie Wellington winning here in 2008 and 2009. Just to be compared or in the same sentence as Chrissie is special ! Also snagged the bike course record so pretty happy with that!"

Men

Mark Bowstead of New Zealand lead the swim in 45:47 which gave him a 3 seconds lead on Casey Munro of Australia, 5 seconds on defending champion David Dellow of Australia, 9 seconds on Vanhoenacker, 53 seconds on Mitchell Robins of Australia, 54 seconds on Aussies Lachlan Kerin and Paul Ambrose, and 58 seconds on 2013 Ironman World Championship runner-up Luke McKenzie.

Halfway through the bike leg, Bowstead led Vanhoenacker by 1 second, Munro by 16 seconds, McKenzie by 2:58, Ambrose by 2:59, Dellow by 3:29, Nathan Shearer of Australia by 12:51, and Kiwi Dougal Allan by 12:52.

After a race-best 4:29:10 bike split, Bowstead led into T2 by 1:32 on Vanhoenacker, 5:37 on McKenzie, 5:39 on Ambrose, 15:25 on Munro, 16:16 on Allan, and 17:47 on Shearer.

After 6 kilometers of the run, Bowstead maintained a 1:30 lead on Vanhoenacker, while McKenzie clipped his deficit to under 5 minutes. At 9km, Vanhoenacker cut his deficit to 1 minute while McKenzie, the fastest man on the course, sliced his deficit to 4 minutes. By 13km, Vanhoenacker trailed by just 21 seconds, McKenzie by 3 minutes and Ambrose 8 minutes arrears.

Vanhoenacker passed Bowstead at 15km. At 16km, Vanhoenacker led Bowstead by 22 seconds, McKenzie by 2:29, Ambrose by 8:20, and Shearer by 16 minutes in 5th.

At 23km, McKenzie cut his deficit to 2 minutes, but Vanhoenacker stanched the bleeding by matching McKenzie’s pace. At 30km, Marino upped his margin to 2:14 on McKenzie.

After a 3rd-fastest 2:54:12 marathon, Vanhoenacker finished in 8:14:37 with a 3:33 margin of victory over McKenzie (2:53:14 run), 11:48 on 3rd place finisher Bowstead, and 14:37 on 4th place Shearer, who posted the day’s fastest 2:52:14 run.

Women

Photo by Delly Carr

Annabel Luxford of Australia and Kelsey Withrow of the U.S. carved out a decisive lead on the swim with splits of 48:21 and 48:22. Defending champion Laura Siddall trailed by 7:06, Els Visser of Netherlands by 7:08, Renee Kiley of Australia by 9:11, Jessica Mitchell of Australia, 3rd place finisher last year, by 11:31 and Melanie Burke of New Zealand, 3rd in 2014, by 11:32.

Halfway through the 180km bike leg, Luxford blazed to a 5:42 lead on Siddall, 10:10 on Withrow, 10:50 on Visser, 15:46 on Burke, 16:50 on Kiley, and 19:03 on Mitchell. At 135km, Luxford started slowing precipitously and Siddall was closing to within 1:35. By 150km, Siddall passed Luxford for the lead. Within the next 6km, Luxford trailed Siddall by 4 minutes.

After a by-far women's-best 4:56:13 bike split, Siddall entered T2 with a huge lead. Luxford, suffering from severe asthma symptoms, withdrew, leaving Siddall with a 15:43 lead on Visser, 19:17 on Melanie Burke, 24:27 on Withrow, and 24:39 on Kiley.

With that kind of a lead, Siddall enjoyed smooth sailing and cruised to a women’s-fastest 3:10:22 run and a 9:05:59 finish which gave her a 23:52 margin of victory over Burke (3:14:34 run) and 39:01 over 3rd-place finisher Withrow (3:23:13 run).

Ironman Australia
Port Macquairie, Australia
May 6, 2018
S 2.4 mi. / B 12 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) 8:14:37 S 45:57 T1 2:09 B 4:30:57 T2 1:24 R 2:54:12
2. Luke McKenzie (AUS) 8:18:10 S 46:46 T1 2:24 B 4:33:57 T2 1:51 R 2:53:14
3. Mark Bowstead (NZL) 8:26:25 S 45:48 T1 2:32 B 4:29:10 T2 1:38 R 3:07:20
4. Nathan Shearer (AUS) 8:29:14 S 54:30 T1 2:08 B 4:38:39 T2 1:45 R 2:52:14
5. Paul Ambrose (AUS) 8:29:38 S 46:42 T1 2:09 B 4:34:18 T2 1:30 R 3:05:01
6. Dougal Allan (NZL) 8:34:46 S 52:46 T1 2:13 B 4:38:47 T2 1:44 R 2:59:17

Women

1. Laura Siddall (GBR) 9:05:59 S 55:48 T1 2:21 B 4:56:13 T2 1:17 R 3:10:22
2. Melanie Burke (NZL) 9:29:51 S 1:00:14 T2 2:39 B 5:10:47 T2 1:38 R 3:14:34
3. Kelsey Withrow (USA) 9:45:00 S 48:42 T1 2:57 B 5:27:10 T2 3:00 R 3:23:13
4. Els Visser (NED) 9:56:32 S 55:50 T1 2:26 B 5:11:50 T2 1:34 R 3:44:54
5. Renee Kiley (AUS) 9:58:14 S 57:53 T1 3:14 B 5:17:55 T2 2:53 R 3:36:21
6. Jessica Mitchell (AUS) 3:27:11 S 1:00:13 T1 3:47 B 5:25:09 T2 2:08 R 3:27:11