Ironman Australia

What a great race we had on our hands today.  With all the main contenders coming off the bike close together, it was down to who could run the fastest. Patrick Vernay was all class in retaining his title. He was pushed hard by two Aussies, first by young Tim Berkel and later by Pete Jacobs. Vernay was able to pull away in the later stages of the marathon to win by nearly 5 minutes over Jacobs, with Berkel another 2 minutes further back.

1	Patrick, VERNAY	14/11/1	35/Pro	00:50:51	04:44:40	02:45:58	08:24:53
2	Pete, JACOBS	1/8/2	27/Pro	00:47:51	04:47:35	02:50:25	08:29:03
3	Tim, BERKEL	13/5/3	24/Pro	00:50:50	04:44:37	02:53:31	08:31:43
4	Jimmy, JOHNSEN	19/13/4	30/Pro	00:50:56	04:44:44	02:55:06	08:33:43
5	Maik, TWELSIEK	11/10/5	28/Pro	00:50:49	04:43:30	02:55:19	08:34:10
6	Timothy, DEBOOM	6/12/6	38/Pro	00:48:19	04:47:13	03:00:28	08:39:47
7	Simon, THOMPSON	3/6/7	31/Pro	00:48:12	04:47:02	03:03:09	08:42:21
8	Matt, WHITE	10/9/8	31/Pro	00:50:48	04:44:43	03:12:17	08:50:59
9	Chris, DMITRIEFF	29/20/9	30/Pro	00:56:54	05:02:05	02:50:20	08:53:06
10	Mitchell, ANDERSON	23/14/10	33/Pro	00:52:41	04:49:44	03:09:28	08:56:21

In contrast the women's race was not nearly as exciting. As predicted in our preview, Michellie Jones pulled out citing a head cold. This left the challengers to Chrissie Wellington sparse in-deed with Kate Bevilaqua also having to pull out with a stress fracture.  Keat maintained contact in the swim and was 11 minutes behind after the bike leg, but Wellington was too quick on the run pulling away to win by nearly 25 minutes. There was much talk before hand as to whether Wellington would finish in the top 5 overall. In the end she finished 13th not quite as impressive as last year where she was 9th overall. As predicted though she did go under the 9 hour mark, posting a very impressive 8.57.  Swiss athlete Caroline Steffen was a dark horse challenging Keat on the bike and she rounded out the podium.

1	Chrissie, WELLINGTON	9/15/11	32/Pro	00:50:48	05:03:01	02:59:15	08:57:10
2	Rebekah, KEAT	17/22/18	31/Pro	00:50:55	05:14:05	03:12:42	09:21:33
3	Caroline, STEFFEN	20/23/19	30/Pro	00:52:28	05:12:02	03:28:56	09:38:44
4	Abigail, BAYLEY	33/26/21	31/Pro	00:58:35	05:35:06	03:23:14	10:01:27
5	Sarah, POLLETT	12/25/23	28/Pro	00:50:50	05:41:31	03:27:32	10:04:23
6	Alison, COYLE	24/27/24	27/Pro	00:54:59	05:41:58	03:30:50	10:12:49