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The run at Clearwater: Course records for the men and women
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First-time Ironman 70.3 World Champions Michael Raelert and
Julie Dibens both broke the course records in Clearwater.
© Geronimo from fotolia
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The list of men who led early in the half marathon at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships was a who's-who of triathlon. Olympian Matt Reed took the lead out of transition, but he was overtaken by Michael Raelert (brother of Andreas Raelert–Kona's third-place winner) of Germany around the 5K mark. Behind them, however were Olympian and Lifetime Fitness winner Greg Bennett, last year's 70.3 champion Terenzo Bozzone (coming off an 11th-place finish in Kona), and Daniel Fontana; all within a minute of Raelert's time at the turn-around.
Before 10 miles it looked like Matty Reed was done, dropping out of the running for the podium as Greg Bennett–one of the fastest men in Olympic distance racing–pulled into second place. But Bennett was hurting, and a mile later he had faded back out of the top ten and Reed was back in third. Through the tumult Fontana stayed steady, turning his fifth place spot into third, then second through the shuffle.
Raelert, who had never won a 70.3 race continued to build his lead into the finish line, breaking the tape in 3:34:04, almost 2 minutes before Italy's Daniel Fontana. Raelert, who finished the half marathon in an hour and nine minutes, had run his way to a new course record. As testament to how stacked the field was, all of the top five male finishers broke Bozzone's course record from last year.
The female bike leader Julie Dibens' task would be to hold onto the three-minute lead she had built by T2 all the way to the finish, but Caroline Steffen and Jodi Swallow were hot on her heels. Dibens stayed strong through the first quarter of the race, opening up another minute over the first four miles and holding that gap through the rest of the half marathon.
At the finish line Dibens became the first woman to break the four-hour barrier, setting new world and course records with a time of 3:59:33. Behind her, Mary Beth Ellis finished more than four minutes down, with Magali Tisseyre out-sprinting Caroline Steffen by six seconds to round out the top three. "You so deserve it!" Ellis told Dibens as she interrupted the now world champion's interview to congratulate her.
Dibens truly deserves the award for outstanding performance of the day, considering how difficult it is to build a lead on a flat bike course. Had the world championships been held on a more challenging course with tougher conditions, Dibens' performance certainly would have been more dominant than the giant bike lead that Chrissie Wellington built to break the Kona course record last month. This is Dibens' second world championship title in three weeks. In October she won the Xterra world championships in Maui for the third year in a row.
Men's overall Clearwater finishing times
- 3:34:04 Michael Raelert
- 3:36:44 Daniel Fontana
- 3:37:50 Matthew Reed
- 3:38:02 Sylvain Sudrie
- 3:38:19 Joe Gambles
- 3:40:16 Luke Bell
- 3:40:16 Kevin Collington
- 3:40:19 Alberto Casadei
- 3:40:31 Leon Griffin
- 3:41:37 Brian Fleischmann
Women's overall Clearwater finishing times
- 3:59:33 Julie Dibens
- 4:03:49 Mary Beth Ellis
- 4:05:27 Magali Tisseyre
- 4:05:33 Caroline Steffen
- 4:07:39 Laura Bennett
- 4:08:17 Michellie Jones
- 4:09:34 Sarah Groff
- 4:13:16 Amanda Stevens
- 4:15:04 Karin Thuerig
- 4:17:57 Vanessa Gianinni
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