The Timing Chip – Ironman WA

The results from Sunday’s race in Busselton were outstanding in many ways, buoyed by superb conditions for the swim and minimal wind at the start of the bike. With the temperature rising to 30C degrees during the run, the earlier you began the less time you spent in the heat of the day.

Seven pro women and two pro men were faster than the respective women’s and men’s winners a year ago. The fastest splits on the day, based on those who completed the race, among the pro men were: a 49:31 swim, a 4:18:07 bike and a 2:43:58 run. These were accomplished by three different athletes.

For the pro women, it was a 53:31 swim, a 4:50:49 bike and a 3:10:50. The winner, Lisbeth Kristensen, recorded the first two splits, building enough of a lead to outlast several faster runners.

Seventeen men finished sub9 this year, five more than a year ago. And 103 athletes finished sub10, almost twice as many as in 2005 when athletes were met with a thunderstorm that delayed the start of the race by half an hour, left them swimming in rough water and battling strong winds on the bike. And then it got hot!

In this year’s race, the most competitive age group was the men’s 40-44 category where the top three athletes finished sub9; just 18 seconds separated first and second place with all three within 5 minutes of each other.

The speediest men’s age grouper on the day was in the 40-44 group, with a time of 8:55:57.

Not unexpectedly, the men’s 25-29 age group was next fastest – with less than 9 minutes separating first and third place. The first crossed the line in 8:59:20.

The third-fastest group, in terms of the top three finishers, was men 35-39, followed by the men 30-34 and men 45-49.

Looking at the depth of competitiveness at the event, 14 pro men, nine in the men’s 30-34 age group and seven each among the pro women and the men’s 25-29 group had finished the race sub9:30.

At the 10 hour mark, 30 in the men’s 30-34 group had finished their day, as had 15 pro men, 14 in the men’s 25-29 group and the men’s 35-39 group, 11 pro women and 10 in the men’s 40-44 group.

The most competitive women’s age group was 30-34, followed by those aged 25-29 years. The fastest woman age grouper, from the 25-29's, crossed the line in 10:22:28.

While the group performances were uncanny, there were some huge individual personal bests and some massive improvements from a year ago.

TriSpecific’s Charlotte Paul finished in 9:17:46 and had to settle for third place, compared with the 9:47:28 that secured her second place a year ago.

Team High5 Multisports Lisa Marangon finished in 9:35:16 after riding 5:04:42, or almost 20 minutes faster than a year ago. She also ran almost half an hour faster too.

The finishing times were massive PBs for both Paul and Marangon.

No doubt another year of training, with more time to finetune one’s nutrition plan and racing strategy, helped bolster individual performances, but even individual records weren’t enough.

Mitch Anderson, who set a bike course record of 4:18:07, had to settle for second place in 8:18:01. A year ago he rode 4:30:40 and won the event in 8:27:36.

There were 766 finishers this year, up from 588 a year ago.