Australian Aaron Royle edged Fernando Alarza of Spain and Non Stanford of Great Britain outran Sarissa DeVries of the Netherlands to win the ITU U23 Grand Final crowns in Auckland, New Zealand.
by Tim Carlson, October 19, 2012
As the men and women began the run, superstars enjoying substantial leads. By the end, Marino Vanhoenacker’s 8-minute lead led to a DNF, Leanda Cave erased Caroline Steffen’s 3-minute advantage. Photo Gallery by Timothy Carlson.
It was a race of surprises that began with a slower than usual swim, an irritating side winds on the road to Hawi that worked like body punches on the top contenders. Photo Gallery by Timothy Carlson.
Pete Jacobs keeps the Aussie men’s Kona win streak alive as Macca DNFs and Crowie falters; Leanda Cave blew away Caroline Steffen in the final two miles to win the sport’s most precious prize, after having won the 70.3 crown recently.
Sebastian Kienle is the only serious Kona contender under 30 – and he seems to be cut in the mold of previous German uberbikers like Zack, Hellriegel and Stadler. But the 70.3 World champ has a more conservative approach.
Now in its 15th year, the Kona Underpants Run is bigger than ever. The idea was to make fun of insensitive Euros who paraded around Kona streets and offended locals by wearing Speedos. Crazy, eh?
Formal Ironman World Championship festivities kicked off Tuesday afternoon with the kids’ race and a low-key parade which recalls the Olympic opening ceremonies on Kona streets. Photo Gallery by Timothy Carlson.
Timothy Carlson agrees to eat crow and bow down to anyone whose favorite women’s contender at Ironman Hawaii was ignored here and proves his fatally flawed and pusillanimous powers of triathletic prognostication dead wrong.
A particularly strong men’s field makes picking the winners a fool’s errand. Timothy Carlson once again applies his fatally flawed prognosticating powers, much like salmon swim upstream only to die.
Cameron Dye and Sarah Haskins won both today’s Toyota U.S. Open in Dallas and the overall 2012 Toyota Cup Challenge Series points titles today, taking a total of $75,000 apiece in race and series prizes.
Leanda Cave has won 3 World Championships, but last year her 3rd place finish at Kona and her IM Arizona win in 8:49 gave her the belief she belongs among the favorites in search of the sport’s most coveted prize.
The 34th Superfrog Triathlon attracted 800 entries to the Coronado peninsula south of the Navy SEALS training center and Lance Armstrong and Beth Walsh grabbed the wins at this long running Half Ironman event.
The Superfrog Triathlon is the longest continuously running half Ironman distance event and here is a photo gallery by Timothy Carlson.
