Cunnama, Spirig take Austin
South African James Cunnama ran down Estonian Marko Albert to win the 2010 Ironman 70.3 Austin event. Swiss ITU star Nicola Spririg led from start to finish in the women's race and displayed a dominating performance.
The men
Marko Albert led the men out of the water and had a nice lead on Brandon Marsh and Richie Cunningham.
The Estonian had his 15 seconds of fame of sorts in 2008 when he led the bike segment during the Olympic triathlon in Beijing together with Dirk Bockel and Axel Zeebroek, but that certainly wasn't all we expected from him. Here in Austin, Texas Albert proved again that ITU athletes indeed can ride the bike hard, no matter what the course is like in distance or difficulty or the number of athletes around them. Albert clocked the fastest bike split in a time of 2:08:25 and no one else came even close. James Cunnama though had put himself in a decent position and entered T2 in second place a bit over 6 minutes down on the Estonian.
Cunnama blazed out of transition and set out in pursuit of Albert. With the fastest run split of the day Cunnama reeled in Albert and took the title in Austin. Albert held on to second place and Cunningham finished third.
The women
Nicola Spirig is mostly known for her ITU exploits, but the Swiss athlete isn't new to 70.3 racing. She has previously won 70.3 Monaco and Switzerland and in 2008 narrowly lost a tough battle with Julie Dibens for the title in Rapperswil.
In Austin she lined up with a very deep women's Pro field but managed to keep almost all of them at bay during the 1.2 mile swim. Only Nina Kraft was able to stay on her heels.
But once on the bike, Spirig quickly got rid of her shadow and recorded a 2:15:37 bike split, almost 3 minutes faster than the time of the next fastest female pro Angela Naeth, but the Canadian also had lost 5 minutes during the swim to the fast flying Swiss Pro. Heather Wurtele, Samantha Warriner and Heather Jackson were next into T2.
Spirig closed out her day with a 1:25:41 run to win the race with a solid 8 minute lead. Naeth crossed the finishline in second place and Warriner took the final podium spot.
Ironman 70.3 Austin
Austin, TX / October 17, 2010
1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run
Top 10 men
1. James Cunnama (RSA) 3:53:57
2. Marko Albert (EST) 3:55:06
3. Richie Cunningham (AUS) 3:57:04
4. Alessandro Degasperi (ITA) 3:57:29
5. Jeff Symonds (CAN) 3:57:57
6. Boris Stein (GER) 3:58:54 * AG M
7. Brent Poulsen (USA) 4:00:02
8. Brad Seng (USA) 4:04:45
9. Trevor Wurtele (CAN) 4:04:54
10. Lewis Elliot (USA) 4:05:48
Top 10 women
1. Nicola Spirig (SUI) 4:09:35
2. Angela Naeth (CAN) 4:17:58
3. Sam Warriner (NZL) 4:22:01
4. Christie Sym (AUS) 4:23:03
5. Heather Wurtele (CAN) 4:23:25
6. Jessica Meyers (USA) 4:24:56
7. Nina Kraft (GER) 4:26:11
8. Heather Jackson (USA) 4:29:14
9. Annie Gervais (CAN) 4:29:24
10. Uli Bromme (USA) 4:29:31
