Alexander, Luxford top Busselton
At age 42, 3-time Ironman World champion and 2-time Ironman 70.3 World Champion Craig Alexander appears to have lost little if any of his skills as he ran away from his rivals to win Ironman 70.3 Busselton in Western Australia. Fellow Aussie Annabel Luxford bounced back from a 5th place at Ironman South Africa three weeks ago to dominate the women's field at Busselton.
Men
Peter Kerr led the swim in a race record 21:34 split which gave him an advantage of 2 seconds on 2012 Ironman World Champion Pete Jacobs, 4 seconds on Kiwi Callum Millward, 1:04 on Mike Phillips, 1:07 on A.J. Polizzi and 1:11 on Alexander and Guy Crawford.
Halfway through the bike leg, Jacobs led Peter Kerr by 2 seconds, Polizzi by 1:22, Millward by 1:25 with Matt Burton storming from 5 minutes back after the swim to within 2 minutes.
By the end of the 56-mile bike segment, Mike Phillips led by 2 seconds over Burton, who posted a by-far-best 2:00:34 bike split, by 4 seconds over Guy Crawford, 22 seconds over Lachlan Kieren (2:03:28 bike split) and 1:25 over Millward with Alexander, Mitch Robins and Tim George right behind.
At the halfway point of the run, Tim George took the lead, followed closely by Robins, Alexander, Millward and Crawford. With 7km to go, Robins and Alexander were running side by side, 20 seconds ahead of George, 1 minute on Millward and 2 minutes on Peter Kerr.
With the race on the line, Alexander turned on the jets and finished with a race-best 1:12:22 half marathon which brought him to the line in a course record 3:43:00 with a 1:36 margin of victory over Robins (1:13:58 run) and 2:29 on 3rd-place finisher Millward (1:14:51 run).
Women
Due to timing problems, the only reliable finish time was Luxford’s 4:12:34, which broke Jo Lawn’s previous mark of 4:13:24 and dominated the women's field.
Luxford broke the previous women's swim record by 29 seconds, which gave her a 6 seconds advantage on fellow Australian Alise Selsmark, 1:25 on Katey Gibb, 1:56 on Leah Lassche of New Zealand and 2 minutes on Australian Kate Bevilaqua. Halfway through the bike leg, Luxford stretched her lead to 3 minutes on a quartet of Bevilaqua, Gibb, Selsmark and Lassche.
Luxford closed the door with an approximate 1:27 run whose imprecise clocking was typical of timing errors that gave no correct run splits and contrary finish times for the women. .
Following Luxford were, in order, Bevilaqua, Gibb, Selsmark and Lassche.
Ironman 70.3 Busselton
Busselton, Australia
May 1, 2016
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 3:43:00
2. Mitch Robins (AUS) 3:44:36
3. Callum Millward (NZL) 3:45:29
4. Tim George (AUS) 3:45:41
5. Matthew Pellow (AUS) 4:46:53
13. Pete Jacobs (AUS 3:50:53
Women
1. Annabel Luxford (AUS) 4:12:34
2. Kate Bevilaqua (AUS) NO TIME
3. Katey Gibb (AUS) NO TIME
4. Alise Selsmark (AUS) NO TIME
5. Leah Lassche (NZL) NO TIME
