Triathlon shots.com - Kona Ironman World Championships 2009.

Craig Alexander ran well but was to afr behind after the bike to win today.

He would place 4th today after winning the last two years.

Rasmus Henning will likely win this event some year if he stays injury free.

1st. Chris McCormack (AUS) 8:10:37

2nd. Andreas Raelert (GER) 8:12:17

3rd. Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) 8:13:14

4. Craig Alexander (AUS) 8:16:53
5. Raynard Tissink (RSA) 8:20:11
6. Timo Bracht (GER) 8:21:00
7. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 8:22:02
8. Dirk Bockel (LUX) 8:22:59
9. Pete Jacobs (AUS) 8:23:26
10. Faris Al-Sultan (GER) 8:24:04

2010 Ironman World Championship - Macca versus Raelert.

Here is the 2010 race report :

Besides my wife being on facebook, I finally put my laptop to some good use, I watched the live coverage of the Hawaii Ironman world champs. I sat glued until the early hours watching, wishing I was back in Kona. The quality of the streaming was superb, with no technical interuptions.

The day started with the shock announcement that Chrissie Wellington had withdrawn due to medical reasons. This would open the door up for a few contenders. All the men were still in the hunt.

Andy Potts and Julie Dibens led the way in the swim for the men and women respectively. Most of the big players came out the water in around 51 minutes. ( 51 minutes for the top contenders is the general trend year after year.)

(editor note : Rachel Joyce was first out of the water).

Out on the bike, there was a steady stream of cyclists. Maik Twelsiek and Chris Lieto stamped their mark on the cycle leg on the way up the the turn at Hawi. I think that this was the wrong tactic by Chris Lieto, who is a supreme cyclist. In my opinion, he needs to do his own race, and I feel that he is very capable of breaking Normann Stadlers bike record. He can win it on the bike, he just needs to back himself. The cameras spent alot of time following the front pair, along with Marino Vanhoenacker. Both Twelsiek and Vanhoenacker are part of the Commerzbank team. They were riding the new Scott Plasma Premium which was launched at Eurobike only a few months back. They looked awesome. Pity we didnt get to see much of the other team members, Timo Bracht and Normann Stadler. There was a big group of guys riding together up to Hawi. South African Raynard Tissink made a move to the front of the group and started to ease into a great rhythm. Only Macca went with him. They rode togther back to transition, catching and passing the Stadler group.

Three of the top contenders, Rasmus Henning, Fraser Cartmell and Eeneko Llanos all swam and rode with defending champion, Craig Alexander. They obviously felt that this was their best tactic to adopt, but they all got it wrong. Fraser Cartmell is very solid at all three disciplines ( he ran 2hr:49min in IMUK, which included a few toilet stops).

Rachel Joyce was the early leader on the bike. Another top class UK athlete. Julie Dibens predictably took the lead on the bike and held it to transition. A 4hr:55min first time round is pretty darn awesome. She, and Chris Lieto, both of Team K-Swiss, looked very similar on their bikes, both styles very effortlessly fast and efficient. Mirinda Carfrae was getting to within striking distance for her strength, the marathon.

Out on the run, Chris Lieto, started well, but slowly dropped back. He still put in a 3hr:06min marathon, but was 25 minutes slower than Craig Alexander. Chris can put up to 20 minutes on him on the bike, and that will be an entertaining race.

Macca took off like there was no tomorrow, he just look so strong and effortless. He ran into the lead fairly early on, and held it until he was caught by Andreas Raelert. When he was caught, I remember thinking that Macca looked relaxed and very strong, not like all the other in the past who were caught on the Queen K near the finish. They duked it out, and Macca proved to make a great tactical move when Raelart went to the last aid station. While Andreas was chasing Macca down, Michael Raelert (current 70.3 world champ, and brother of Andreas) was shouting correct legitimate splits to Macca from the press vehicle( a great show of sportmanship).

Marino Vanhoenacker was making his way to third while Craig Alexander ran all the way through to 4th. He put in a 2hr 41min 59sec marathon split. Only fellow Aussie, Pete Jacobs ran faster, 2hr 41min 5sec , the third fasted Hawaii marathon split to date.

Raynard Tissink was under the radar all day, and put in a vey solid performance to claim a well deserved 5th. He and his family were so commited to this race, that they toured the US for 5 months in preparation for Kona. There were some very fast run times this year, with 4 guys running sub 2hr 45min.

Mirinda Carfrae chased Julie Dibens down for the win. She put in a 8hr 58min time with a new marathon record of 2hr 53min. Caroline Steffin ran into second to pass a fading Dibens. Julie Dibens came 3rd in her debut Ironman with a time of 9hr 10min. Simply stunning.

Some other interesting bits:

1) For some reason, men aged 37, enjoy success at ironman Hawaii:
   2010: 1st Macca, 4th Craig Alexander, 5th Raynard Tissink
   2009: 2nd Chris Lieto
   2003: 6th Jurgen Zack
2000: 7th Peter Kropko
1995: 1st Mark Allen, 13th Rob Barel
1993: 3rd Scott Tinley
1988: 13th Rubin Chappins
1986: 4th Claus Barth
1984: 6th John Howard

2) other notible ages:
   2010: 11th Chris Lieto age 38
   2009: 1st Craig Alexnder 36, 4th Macca 36
   2008: 6th Cameron Brown 36
   2007: 4th Tim DeBoom 36, 8th Luc Van Lierde 38
   2005: 3rd Peter Reid 36, 5th Cam Widoff 36
   2004: 9th Rene Rovera 36
   2003: 3rd Nastasha Badmann 36
   2002: 1st Nastasha Badmann 35, 12th Peter Kropko 39
   2001: 11th Peter Kropko 38
   1996: 1st Luc van Lierde 27 (race # 37 ) , 5th Dave Scott 42
    1994: 2nd Dave Scott 40
   1993: 1st Mark Allen 35
    1989: 1st Mark Allen 31, 2nd Dave Scott 35
   1985: 8th Claus Barth 36

3) 2 Aussie defending champs came 4th in the defences: 1995 Greg Welch 4th after winning in 1994.
                                                                                   2010 Craig Alexander 4th after winning (Editors note : make that 3 if you include Macca's 4th in 2009).

The above race report is written by a long time follower of triathlon. His pen name on here is DBR. Hope you found it as interesting as I do.

Last minute stretching and warm up.
Men and woman away together and with a 30min gap to the age groupers. Previously the start gap to the age groupers was only 15mins. A larger gap meant the women who would contend for the title didn't have to worry about drafting infringements around the leading age group men. p Andy Potts had a good lead after the swim but didn't break into the top 10 overall today. Faris Al Sultan leading the way with other top swimming pro men. Rasmus Henning(#5) had a day where many things went wrong for him. Henning was a pre-race favourite after recording one of the fatsest times ever over this distance earlier in the year at Challenge Roth. Henning Chris Lieto repeated his last year effort on the bike to build a significant time gap to everyone else on the bike. But this year his run legs didn't last so long. Faris Al Sultan has won this race before and placed 10th today, the same finish position as last year The top 10 men automatically qualify for Kona in 2010. Previous winners like him can enter in any future year they choose as a reward for being champion for a year here. Fraser Cartmell has had a good year over this distance but today wasn't his best performance. Another graduate from ITU racing Belgium's Frederik Van Lierde Cameron Brown won Ironman NZ in impresive form earlier this year but didn't make top 10 He has placed top 3 at Kona on several occasions before though. Leito leading out the run. He would get the $5000usd run prime for leading up to a certain point. I would say a good reward for him making the race interesting and pushing everyone else to new limits.

Chris McCormack showing good run form to win today. The 2007 champion here	Andreas Raelert (GER) placed 3rd in 2009 and improved one place to 2nd this year.
Craig Alexander ran well but was to afr behind after the bike to win today. He would place 4th today after winning the last two years. Rasmus Henning will likely win this event some year if he stays injury free. 1st. Chris McCormack (AUS) 8:10:37 2nd. Andreas Raelert (GER) 8:12:17 3rd. Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) 8:13:14 4. Craig Alexander (AUS) 8:16:53 5. Raynard Tissink (RSA) 8:20:11 6. Timo Bracht (GER) 8:21:00 7. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 8:22:02 8. Dirk Bockel (LUX) 8:22:59 9. Pete Jacobs (AUS) 8:23:26 10. Faris Al-Sultan (GER) 8:24:04 2010 Ironman World Championship - Macca versus Raelert. Here is the 2010 race report : Besides my wife being on facebook, I finally put my laptop to some good use, I watched the live coverage of the Hawaii Ironman world champs. I sat glued until the early hours watching, wishing I was back in Kona. The quality of the streaming was superb, with no technical interuptions. The day started with the shock announcement that Chrissie Wellington had withdrawn due to medical reasons. This would open the door up for a few contenders. All the men were still in the hunt. Andy Potts and Julie Dibens led the way in the swim for the men and women respectively. Most of the big players came out the water in around 51 minutes. ( 51 minutes for the top contenders is the general trend year after year.) (editor note : Rachel Joyce was first out of the water). Out on the bike, there was a steady stream of cyclists. Maik Twelsiek and Chris Lieto stamped their mark on the cycle leg on the way up the the turn at Hawi. I think that this was the wrong tactic by Chris Lieto, who is a supreme cyclist. In my opinion, he needs to do his own race, and I feel that he is very capable of breaking Normann Stadlers bike record. He can win it on the bike, he just needs to back himself. The cameras spent alot of time following the front pair, along with Marino Vanhoenacker. Both Twelsiek and Vanhoenacker are part of the Commerzbank team. They were riding the new Scott Plasma Premium which was launched at Eurobike only a few months back. They looked awesome. Pity we didnt get to see much of the other team members, Timo Bracht and Normann Stadler. There was a big group of guys riding together up to Hawi. South African Raynard Tissink made a move to the front of the group and started to ease into a great rhythm. Only Macca went with him. They rode togther back to transition, catching and passing the Stadler group. Three of the top contenders, Rasmus Henning, Fraser Cartmell and Eeneko Llanos all swam and rode with defending champion, Craig Alexander. They obviously felt that this was their best tactic to adopt, but they all got it wrong. Fraser Cartmell is very solid at all three disciplines ( he ran 2hr:49min in IMUK, which included a few toilet stops). Rachel Joyce was the early leader on the bike. Another top class UK athlete. Julie Dibens predictably took the lead on the bike and held it to transition. A 4hr:55min first time round is pretty darn awesome. She, and Chris Lieto, both of Team K-Swiss, looked very similar on their bikes, both styles very effortlessly fast and efficient. Mirinda Carfrae was getting to within striking distance for her strength, the marathon. Out on the run, Chris Lieto, started well, but slowly dropped back. He still put in a 3hr:06min marathon, but was 25 minutes slower than Craig Alexander. Chris can put up to 20 minutes on him on the bike, and that will be an entertaining race. Macca took off like there was no tomorrow, he just look so strong and effortless. He ran into the lead fairly early on, and held it until he was caught by Andreas Raelert. When he was caught, I remember thinking that Macca looked relaxed and very strong, not like all the other in the past who were caught on the Queen K near the finish. They duked it out, and Macca proved to make a great tactical move when Raelart went to the last aid station. While Andreas was chasing Macca down, Michael Raelert (current 70.3 world champ, and brother of Andreas) was shouting correct legitimate splits to Macca from the press vehicle( a great show of sportmanship). Marino Vanhoenacker was making his way to third while Craig Alexander ran all the way through to 4th. He put in a 2hr 41min 59sec marathon split. Only fellow Aussie, Pete Jacobs ran faster, 2hr 41min 5sec , the third fasted Hawaii marathon split to date. Raynard Tissink was under the radar all day, and put in a vey solid performance to claim a well deserved 5th. He and his family were so commited to this race, that they toured the US for 5 months in preparation for Kona. There were some very fast run times this year, with 4 guys running sub 2hr 45min. Mirinda Carfrae chased Julie Dibens down for the win. She put in a 8hr 58min time with a new marathon record of 2hr 53min. Caroline Steffin ran into second to pass a fading Dibens. Julie Dibens came 3rd in her debut Ironman with a time of 9hr 10min. Simply stunning. Some other interesting bits: 1) For some reason, men aged 37, enjoy success at ironman Hawaii: 2010: 1st Macca, 4th Craig Alexander, 5th Raynard Tissink 2009: 2nd Chris Lieto 2003: 6th Jurgen Zack 2000: 7th Peter Kropko 1995: 1st Mark Allen, 13th Rob Barel 1993: 3rd Scott Tinley 1988: 13th Rubin Chappins 1986: 4th Claus Barth 1984: 6th John Howard 2) other notible ages: 2010: 11th Chris Lieto age 38 2009: 1st Craig Alexnder 36, 4th Macca 36 2008: 6th Cameron Brown 36 2007: 4th Tim DeBoom 36, 8th Luc Van Lierde 38 2005: 3rd Peter Reid 36, 5th Cam Widoff 36 2004: 9th Rene Rovera 36 2003: 3rd Nastasha Badmann 36 2002: 1st Nastasha Badmann 35, 12th Peter Kropko 39 2001: 11th Peter Kropko 38 1996: 1st Luc van Lierde 27 (race # 37 ) , 5th Dave Scott 42 1994: 2nd Dave Scott 40 1993: 1st Mark Allen 35 1989: 1st Mark Allen 31, 2nd Dave Scott 35 1985: 8th Claus Barth 36 3) 2 Aussie defending champs came 4th in the defences: 1995 Greg Welch 4th after winning in 1994. 2010 Craig Alexander 4th after winning (Editors note : make that 3 if you include Macca's 4th in 2009). The above race report is written by a long time follower of triathlon. His pen name on here is DBR. Hope you found it as interesting as I do.