Granger, Alexander top Honu 70.3
Reigning Ironman Hawaii champion Craig Alexander overcame Chris Lieto’s record-smashing bike with a race-record run to win the Honu Ironman 70.3 Hawaii Saturday. Amidst strong winds on the Queen K, Belinda Granger’s second-best-ever-Honu-women's bike helped solidify her win over two-time defending champion Samantha McGlone, who is on the comeback trail after season-ending Achilles tendinitis sidelined her last summer.
The men
After matching swims a few seconds under 25 minutes, Danville, California’s Lieto simply smashed the course record with a sizzling 2:10:07 bike (91 seconds faster than three-time Honu winner Chris McCormack’s 2007 bike split in far milder conditions) that gave him a 7 minute lead over Alexander. On the run, Alexander’s race-record 1:17:11 run (43 seconds faster than Macca’s 2007 Honu half marathon), bested Lieto by 10 minutes 5 seconds. Hitting the line in 4:02:52, Alexander posted a third-best-ever overall time (5:34 off McCormack’s 2007 race record mark) which gave him a 2 minutes 42 seconds margin of victory over Lieto.
The women
In a similar dynamic to the men’s race, Ironman stalwart Belinda Granger of Australia and 2006 Ironman 70.3 World Champion Samantha McGlone of Canada started off with nearly identical swims a few seconds over 27 minutes. On the bike, multiple Ironman champion Granger carved out a 2 minutes 46 seconds lead on McGlone with a second-best 2:27:18 bike which was 1 minute 46 seconds faster than Michellie Jones’ 2007 mark on the 56-mile cycling leg. Third place finisher Rhae Shaw of Seattle, Washington set a new bike course record with a 2:26:43 split on her way to a 4:46:08 overall finish time – eight minutes back of McGlone.
If McGlone was all the way back to her pre-injury form, she would have won easily. But on current form, Granger’s 1:34:56 run trumped McGlone’s 1:37:13 mark for the 13.1-mile test, leaving the Australian finishing in 4:33:16 with a 4-minutes, 46-seconds margin of victory. McGlone’s 1:37:13 run Saturday was 11 minutes 16 seconds slower than her race-record 1:25:57 mark set in 2007.
2009 Ironman Hawaii 70.3
Kailua-Kona, HI
May 30, 2009
S 1.2 mi/ B 56 mi/ R 13.1 mi
Results
Overall men
1. Craig Alexander (AUS) 4:02:52
2. Chris Lieto (Danville CA) 4:05:34
3. Luke McKenzie (AUS) 4:11:58
4. Timothy Marr (Honolulu HI) 4:14:11
5. Jarrod Owen (AUS) 4:17:38
6. Chris Hauth (Mill Valley CA) 4:18:03
7. John Flanagan (Honolulu HI) 4:18:44
8. Lewis Elliott (Phoenix AZ) 4:19:14
9. Tim Reed (AUS) 4:22:16
10. Sami Inkinen (San Francisco CA) 4:23:01
Overall women
1. Belinda Granger (AUS) 4:33:16
2. Samantha McGlone (CAN) 4:38:02
3. Rhae Shaw (Seattle WA) 4:46:08
4. Ellen Hart (Denver CO) 4:50:16
5. Jessica Tranchina (Honolulu HI) 4:56:25
6. Nell Stephenson (Preston WA) 4:57:13
7. Natalie Schaefer (Berkeley CA) 4:58:05
8. Ariane Buser (Orinda CA) 4:59:26
9. Laura Tingle (Louisville CO) 5:00:45
10. Britni Bakk (Pt. Roberts WA) 5:01:26
