Bennett, Williamson take Rev3
On a beautiful day in Tennessee, Greg Bennett ran down Cameron Dye to take the title at the 2012 Rev3 Knoxville in 1:47:02. Kelly Williamson had been close before, but this time she stepped onto the very top of the podium.
The men
The sun had barely risen over the Tennessee river at 7am when the horn sounded to signal the start for the very solid men's field. Cameron Dye took charge of the swim as expected and steadily pulled away from the competition. By the time the curly blond Pro reached the exit ramp he had established a 20 second advantage. 2-time defending champion Matty Reed, last year's 3rd place finisher Andrew Yoder and Rev3 newcomer Greg Bennett were all in the chasing pack.
Dye worked hard on the bike to gain even more of an advantage but Yoder came closer and closer and kept pace with him. Bennett was riding in third position trying to limit his losses, but all the other competitors including Reed were drifting further and further away. Towards the end of the bike segment Dye dropped Yoder again, and the gap in T2 was quite similar as it had been about an hour earlier in T1. Bennett was next with a slightly bigger disadvantage, but certainly not out of his realm.
Dye had been passed by Reed late last in the run in 2011 and wanted to avoid this scenario this time around. He did indeed manage to keep Yoder at bay, but Bennett was running like a well oiled machine. The 2004 Olympian caught Yoder at the halfway point of the run and moved past Dye with about a mile to go. From there Bennett pulled further ahead and took the win in a record time of 1:47:02. Dye and Yoder finished second and third just as they had in 2011.
The women
With Julie Dibens and Leanda Cave not at the start in Knoxville it was clear that a new champion would be crowned and a very eager deep field was ready to take on that challenge. Sara McLarty was first out of the water with a 50 second advantage over a good sized chase pack.
McLarty rode well up front while behind her Becky Lavelle, Kelly Williamson, Lauren Goss, Malaika Homo and Jennifer Spieldenner were battling for position. None of the chasers though managed to come close to McLarty and just as in the men's race, first out of the water ended up also first out on the run.
McLarty though had quite a few fast runners reasonably close and was fairly soon caught by Goss. Goss enjoyed the lead only for a while before eventually being overtaken by Williamson and behind those two Laurel Wassner had moved into third position. That is actually what the final podium would look like – Williamson on the very top in a record time of 2:01:47, Goss second in 2:03:06 and Wassner third in 2:05:30.
Related gallery
2012 Rev3 Knoxville race day
Revolution3 Triathlon Knoxville
Knoxville, TN / May 06, 2012
1.5k swim / 40k bike / 10k run
Top men
1. Greg Bennett (USA) 1:47:02
2. Cameron Dye (USA) 1:47:44
3. Andrew Yoder (USA) 1:48:13
4. Kaleb VanOrt (USA) 1:49:16
5. Chris Foster (USA) 1:49:34
6. Viktor Zyemtsev (UKR) 1:50:48
7. Ivan Kalashnikov (RUS) 1:50:49
8. Richie Cunningham (GBR) 1:51:06
9. David Thompson (USA) 1:51:09
10. Matty Reed (USA) 1:51:41
Top women
1. Kelly Williamson (USA) 2:01:47
2. Lauren Goss (USA) 2:03:06
3. Laurel Wassner (USA) 2:05:30
4. Becky Lavelle (USA) 2:05:47
5. Nicole Kelleher (USA) 2:05:53
6. Jessica Meyers (USA) 2:06:08
7. Sara McLarty (USA) 2:06:47
8. Jennifer Spieldenner (USA) 2:07:08
9. Malaika Homo (USA) 2:07:17
10. Sarah Gray (USA) 2:07:26
