Canadians Bryden, Norton take Ultraman titles
Jordan Bryden left, pace runner right
Jordan Bryden of Canada held off a race-best double marathon by Marc Puig Amiel of Spain to finish the three-day Ultraman World Championship in 23:24:46 with a 16:04 margin of victory over Puig Amiel and 23:23 over 3rd place finisher Rob Gray, the 2017 Ultraman champion who was born in South Africa and lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Bryden began the final day with a 9:44 lead on Gray, a 42:59 lead on Arnaud Selukov of France and a 43:53 lead on Marc Puig Amiel of Spain. On Sunday, the man on the move was Puig Amiel, who passed Gray and Zelukov with a race-best 6:52:59 double marathon split on the road from Hawi back to the finish at the old airport at Kailua-Kona. Puig Amiel gave it his best, but fell short of wire-to-wire race leader Bryden, who secured the victory with a second-best 7:20:48 run that held off the Spaniard’s onslaught by 16:04. Rob Gray slipped from 2nd to 3rd with a third-best 7:34:27 run split that left him 7:19 behind Puig Amiel.
Selukov, the winner of the 50-59 category, ran 8:02:17 to finish in 4th place, 1:01:05 behind Gray. Kurt Madden, who won the first Ultraman Hawaii in 1983, ran 9:46:12 to finish 8th overall and 6th man in 28:56:37. Not bad at all for age 64.
Tara Norton runs Day 3 with pacer
Tara Norton of Canada defended her 2018 Ultraman World Championship women’s crown with a 28:22:09 finish time for the three-day triathletic circumnavigation of the Big Island of Hawaii which gave her a veritable photo finish-close for the 321-mile Ultraman – a 7:53 margin of victory over 2002 Ultraman women’s winner Conny Dauben of Germany.
Norton began the Day Three 52.4-mile double marathon with a 1:24:42 lead on her rival after the 10k swim and 90-mile bike legs on Day 1 and 171.4-mile bike leg on Day 2. Undiscouraged by her large deficit, Dauben unleashed a women’s-best 8:17:04 run which cut 1:16:49 from Norton’s lead. But the Canadian clung stubbornly to her lead with a 9:33:53 run which gave her a 7:53 winning margin.
Norton wrote on Facebook how hard she had to push to keep Dauben from passing her on the double marathon: "Ultraman 2019 is in the books. Boy I sure had to dig deep in the last 12kms of the run to finish where I did! While the win sure feels amazing, (and it’s also pretty cool that my fellow Canadian @jordanbryden was the men’s champion), I am most proud of finishing strongly on a day with many moments of doubt. My crew was incredible at feeding me and keeping me motivated for three days of extremely hard racing."
35th Ultraman World Championship
The Big Island of Hawaii
November 29-December 1, 2019
S 10k / B 261.4 / R 52.4 mi.
Day Three R 52.4 .mi.
Results
Men
1. Jordan Bryden (CAN) age 33 S 2:40:49 B1 5:16:30 Day 1 7:57:19 B2 8:06:38 R2 7:20:48 TOT 23:24:46
2. Marc Puig Amiel (ESP) age 31 S 3:29:48 B1 5:11:07 Day 1 8:40:55 B2 8:06:56 R2 6:52:59 TOT 23:40:50
3. Rob Gray (RSA/USA) age 43 S 2:59:10 B1 5:12:29 Day 1 8:11:39 B2 8:03:03 R2 7:34:27 TOT 23:48:09
4. Arnaud Selukov (FRA) age 50 S 3:20:24 B1 5:29:44 Day 1 8:50:08 B2 7:56:49 R2 8:02:17 TOT 24:49:14
5. Josef Ajram (ESP) Age 41 S 3:33:08 B1 6:03:11 Day 1 9:36:19 B2 9:03:07 R2 8:34:09 TOT 27:13:35
6. Kurt Madden (USA) age 64 S 3:06:06 B1 6:11:20 Day 1 9:17:26 B2 9:52:09 R2 9:46:12 TOT 28:56:37
7. Adrian Whittaker (AUS) age 40 S 4:11:36 B1 6:03:11 Day 1 10:14:47 B2 9:35:40 R2 9:16:44 TOT 29:07:11
8. Ryan Toner (USA) age 37 S 2:56:37 B1 6:13:24 Day 1 9:10:01 B2 9:58:16 R2 10:36:46 TOT 29:45:03
9. William Rickards (USA) age 47 S 3:56:39 B1 6:38:21 Day 1 10:35:00 B2 10:20:22 R2 9:20:08 TOT 30:15:30
10. Mauricio Zarama (COL) age 53 S 4:21:56 B1 6:50:28 Day 1 11:12:24 B2 10:47:17 R2 8:49:37 TOT 30:49:18
Women
1. Tara Norton (CAN) age 48 S 3:17:25 B1 6:00:18 Day 1 9:17:43 B2 9:30:33 R2 9:33:53 TOT 28:22:09
2. Conny Dauben (GER) age 44 S 3:48:42 B1 6:30:28 Day 1 10:19:00 B2 9:53:48 R2 8:17:04 TOT 28:30:02
