Luxford, Pellow win Ballarat 70.3
Annabel Luxford and Matthew Pellow won the pro titles by comfortable margins at Ironman 70.3 Ballarat.
After winning Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney two weeks ago, Luxford backed that up with a wire-to-wire win in 4:10:46 with a 4:29 margin over Yvonne Van Vlerken of Netherlands and 7:26 over 3rd-place finisher Kate Pedley of Australia. Luxford combined a women's-best 25:14 swim, 2nd-best 2:19:07 bike split and 2nd-best 1:24:12 run to take top honors.
Pellow combined a 4th-best 22:35 swim, a 3rd-best 2:08:58 bike split and a race-best 1:18:10 run to finish in 3:51:21 with a 3:55 margin of victory over Per Bittner of Germany and 4:52 over 3rd place Nicholas Baldwin of the Seychelles.
Women
Annabel Luxford led the swim with a 25:13 split that gave her a 1:55 lead on Andrea Forrest, 1:57 on Kym Coogan, 2:35 on Wendy McAlpine, 2:39 on Yvonne Van Vlerken, 2:42 on Sarah Crowley and Beth Gerdes trailed by 3:28.
At 28km, Luxford increased her lead to 2:14 on fast advancing Van Vlerken, 3:16 on Forrest and 3:52 on Crowley. By 71km, Van Vlerken trimmed her deficit to Luxford to 1:49 while Luxford increased the gap to the rest of the chasers to 7:13 on Crowley and 7:24 on Gerdes, who advanced to 4th.
After a women’s 2nd-best 2:19:07 bike split, Luxford held a 2:27 lead on Van Vlerken (women's-best 2:18:58 bike split), 8:26 on Gerdes (3rd-best 2:23:38 split) 9:13 on Crowley and 9:17 on Jessica Mitchell.
On the run, Luxford held firm to her lead with a 2nd-best 1:24:12 run, trailed by Van Vlerken (1:26:15) for second place. Fast running Kate Pedley of Australia made the biggest move as her women’s–fastest 1:21:36 run brought her past Beth Gerdes for the final spot on the podium, 2:57 behind Van Vlerken and 2:18 ahead of Gerdes (1:25:31 run).
Men
Ironman World Champion of 2012 Pete Jacobs, long battling illness and injury, started well and led the swim with a 22:28 split which gave him 2 seconds lead on Clayton Fettell (AUS), 5 seconds on Casey Munro (AUS), 6 seconds on Matthew Pellow (AUS), 9 seconds on Luke Bell (AUS), 54 seconds on Josh Rix, 1:26 on Per Bittner of Germany and 1:28 on Jamie Huggett.
By 10km Pellow led a closely bunched pack of five that also included Fettell, Munro, and Jacobs with Rix fallen a bit off the back. At 28km, Bell worked his way into the lead by 1:03 over Fettell, 2:16 over Pellow, 2:46 over Jacobs and Munro with Bittner and Huggett about 3 minutes arrears. By 45km on the bike, Bell led Pellow by 1:46 with Baldwin, Fettell, Bittner, Munro and Huggett all 3-plus minutes behind.
By 71km, Bell increased his lead to 2:42 over Pellow, then 3:20 on a pack led by fast-closing Nicholas Baldwin of the Seychelles, Munro, Bittner and Huggett. At that point, Bell suffered a mechanical issue and fell out of the top 20.
At the finish of the bike leg, Pellow (3rd-fastest 2:08:58 split) led, followed 27 seconds later by Bittner (2nd-fastest 2:08:00 split) with Baldwin (race-fastest 2:07:40 split) and Munro (2:10:21) 1:11 arrears. Huggett (2:09:21 split) was 2:22 off the pace.
By 17km, Pellow increased his lead to 2:43 on Bittner, 3:57 on Baldwin, and 5:09 on fast moving Brad Wauer. By the finish, Pellow’s race-best 1:18:10 run brought him to the line in 3:51:21 with a 3:55 margin on Bittner (1:21:18 run) and 4:52 on Baldwin (1:21:52 run). Wauer ran 1:18:49 to finish 4th.
Ironman 70.3 Ballarat
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
December 13, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Women
1. Annabel Luxford (AUS) 4:10:46
2. Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) 4:15:15
3. Kate Pedley (AUS) 4:18:12
4. Beth Gerdes (USA) 4:20:31
5. Jessica Mitchell (AUS) 4:27:57
Men
1. Matthew Pellow (AUS) 3:51:21
2. Per Bittner (GER) 3:55:16
3. Nicholas Baldwin (SEY) 3:56:13
4. Brad Wauer (AUS) 3:57:25
5. Casey Munro (AUS) 3:58:19
