Nick Baldwin, Liz Blatchford win IM Philippines
Nick Baldwin of Seychelles held off 45-year-old Kiwi legend Cameron Brown and recent mom Liz Blatchford topped the women’s field by 2 miles on a sweltering day at Ironman Philippines.
Men
Baldwin overcame a 3:23 deficit to New Zealander Simon Cochrane after the swim with a race-best 4:45:43 bike split that gave him a 5:20 lead at T2. Cameron Brown sliced his 8:33 deficit after the bike leg to 1:20 behind Baldwin halfway through the run. But then Baldwin found a second wind, fought back, and finished in 8:50:13 with a 6:36 margin on Brown and 8:45 on 3rd place finisher Cochrane. Brown’s race-best 3:01:53 marathon was 1:59 better than Baldwin, but having spent all his energy chasing the Seychelles triathlete, Brown fell back at the end.
Women
Blatchford won wire-to-wire, starting off with a women’s-best 56:12 swim that gave her a 3:38 lead on Alice Selsmark and 7:30 on top rival Dimity Lee Duke to make a 1-2-3 Australian sweep of the swim. Blatchford surged further ahead with a women's second-fastest 5:03:46 bike split that gave her a 13:16 lead on Simone Maier of New Zealand (women’s-best 5:02:05 bike split) and 14:19 on Duke (5:05:48 split).
Blatchford closed with a women’s-fastest 3:19:22 marathon – underlining how the brutal heat and humidity affected the competitors – and finished in 9:22:22 with a 18:23 margin over Duke (3:23:26 run) and 25:17 on 3rd-place Maier (3:31:29 run), a top ranked adventure racer.
Emphasizing the quality of her performance, Blatchford finished fourth overall including the men.
Ironman Subic Bay Philippines
Subic Bay, Philippines
June 3, 2018
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.
Results
Men
1. Nick Baldwin (SYC) 8:50:13 S 55:07 T1 3:14 B 4:45:43 T2 2:20 R 3:03:52
2. Cameron Brown (NZL) 8:56:49 S 55:48 T1 3:23 B 4:53:38 T2 2:08 R 3:01:53
3. Simon Cochrane (NZL) 8:58:58 S 51:14 T1 3:45 B 4:54:01 T2 2:44 R 3:07:16
4. Eneko Elosegi (ESP) 9:35:38 S 1:00:00 T1 3:22 B 4:57:41 T2 2:30 R 3:32:06
5. August Benedicto (PHL) 9:48:46 S 1:08:49 T1 3:14 B 5:07:37 T2 2:02 R 3:27:06
Women
1. Liz Blatchford (AUS) 9:22:22 S 53:01 T1 3:10 B 5:03:46 T2 3:05 R 3:19:22
2. Dimity Lee Duke (AUS) 9:40:45 S 1:00:22 T1 3:18 B 5:05:48 T2 7:54 R 3:23:26
3. Simone Maier (NZL) 9:47:39 S 1:07:02 T1 3:56 B 5:02:05 T2 3:09 R 3:31:29
4. Julia Grant (NZL) 9:57:09 S 1:01:00 T1 3:31 B 5:25:01 T2 2:29 R 3:25:10
5. Alise Selsmark (AUS) 10:13:48 S 56:16 T1 3:32 B 5:36:16 T2 3:17 R 3:34:28
