Alexander, Swallow take Singapore 70.3 wins

Current Ironman Hawaii champion Craig Alexander broke away from Chris McCormack on the run and Great Britain’s 2004 Olympian Jodie Swallow broke the women’s race wide open with a race-best 1:28:05 run to take the pro titles at Ironman Singapore 70.3 Sunday.

The men

Alexander, coming off a dominating win at Geelong Ironman 70.3 last month, his first race after his Ironman World Championship title last October, rode with 2007 Ironman Hawaii champion McCormack, Brazilian Reinaldo Colucci and Aussie Cameron Watt, then surged confidently away by 30 seconds in the first mile of the half-marathon run. Alexander's race-best 1:12:46 run gave him a 3-minute 18-second margin of victory over McCormack.

McCormack’s 1:15:56 run through the streets of one of Asia’s premier financial centers left him second, 3 minutes 46 seconds ahead of fast-closing fellow Aussie Simon Thompson, who took third in 3:54:27.

Aussie Pete Jacobs, who outdueled Alexander at the Australian long course championships, led Alexander by one second after the swim. Jacobs came off the bike even with Thompson but was outrun 1:17:02 to 1:18:51 and had to settle for 4th place in 3:56:15. Colucci, the 2007 Singapore 70.3 winner, scored the day’s best bike split of 2:04:59 but faded to a 1:23:48 run to take 5th in 3:58:24

The women

Jodie Swallow of Great Britain, who switched coaches to two-time Olympic decathlon champion Daley Thompson in 2005 after a series of injuries ruined her 2004 Olympics, won a convincing wire-to-wire win Sunday.

Swallow emerged from the water with a 27:32 swim that gave her a 32-second margin over nearest rivals, Czech Republic star Lucie Zelenkova and New Zealand’s Andrea Hewitt. On the bike, Swallow’s 2:21:20 bike put another minute on Hewitt and Czech citizen, Canadian resident Tereza Macel. Then Swallow topped off her dominating day with a race-best 1:28:05 run that was 9 minutes faster than Hewitt's and Macel's efforts.

Swallow’s 4:19:10 finish gave her an 11-minute 14-second margin of victory over Hewitt, who held off third-place Macel by 17 seconds.

Lucie Zelenkova, coming off a breakthrough win at Ironman 70.3 South Africa in January, took 4th in 4:40:38, with three-time Ironman Hawaii third place finisher Kate Major of Australia cruising in 5th in 4:44:29.

Mishaps took out potential challenges from defending Singapore 70.3 champion Rebekah Keat and world best Ironman-distance performer Yvonne Van Vlerken of the Netherlands. After a sluggish 30:25 swim during which she suffered jellyfish stings, Keat dropped out. Van Vlerken, whose hard work on her swim over the winter seemed to have gone for naught with a shockingly slow 35:33 crawl in Singapore’s harbor, dropped out after suffering a flat.

2009 Singapore Ironman 70.3
Singapore
March 22, 2009
S1.2mi/ B 56 mi/ R 13.1 mi

Results

Pro men

1. Craig Alexander AUS 3:47:23
2. Chris McCormack AUS 3:50:41
3. Simon Thompson AUS 3:54:27
4. Pete Jacobs AUS 3:56:17
5. Reinaldo Colucci BRA 3:58:24
6. Manuel Huerta USA 4:11:49
7. Cameron Watt AUS 4:14:09
8. Kzell Schioeberg 4:47:48

Pro women

1. Jodie Swallow GBR 4:19:10
2. Andrea Hewitt NZL 4:30:24
3. Tereza Macel CZE 4:30:41
4. Lucie Zelenkova CZE 4:40:38
5. Kate Major AUS 4:44:29
6. Leacoline Langit 4:50:32
7. Erin Ohara 4:58:21
8. Jocelyn Suivee Wong 5:11:58