Kriat, Hauschildt rule Augusta
Maxim Kriat had to hold off a hard charging Nick Waninger to win Ironman 70.3 Augusta for the second time in 3 years. In 2011 though Kriat was passed late in this event by Viktor Zyemtsev, but this time Kriat managed to hold on. Melissa Hauschildt pulled away from defending champion Emma-Kate Lidbury during the run to grab the women's title and finish in the top ten overall.
Guy Crawford led the men out of the water in 19:52 and also managed to reach the bike-run transition first after a 2:10:32 bike split, but the Kiwi slowed down during the run and eventually dropped out of contention. Maxim Kriat on the other hand had similar splits in the first two segments but has steam left for the run. Kriat though got a little scare from Nick Waninger who used a race best run split of 1:13:25 to move closer to the leader, but in the end Kriat prevailed by 1:24 and must have felt a bit of redemption after the experience the year prior. But as we said earlier, it is his second title in Augusta. Waninger finished second and Patrick Evoe took third place.
Anna Cleaver led Emma-Kate Lidbury out of the water in 20:12 and 2011 70.3 World Champion Melissa Hauschildt (nee Rollison) took 22 minutes to exit the Savannah River. Hauschildt's race best bike effort of 2:20:45 combined with a quicker swim-bike transition than Lidbury put her into the race lead going into the run, but Lidbury was right there too. Cleaver's 2:30:23 allowed the American to stay near the front, but she had been passed by the hard charging Tamara Kozulina who managed a 2:25:44 bike effort after her 24:29 swim. Hauschildt though showed that she is back in form and closed out the day with a race best 1:20:46 run to win the title. Lidbury hung on to second place and Kozulina finished third.
Ironman 70.3 Augusta
Augusta, GA / September 30, 2012
1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run
Top men
1. Maxim Kriat (UKR) 3:49:14
2. Nich Waninger (USA) 3:50:38
3. Patrick Evo (USA) 3:52:29
4. James McCurdy (USA) 3:55:38
5. Ian Mikelson (USA) 3:56:05
Top women
1. Melissa Hauschildt (AUS) 4:06:56
2. Emma-Kate Lidbury (GBR) 4:13:07
3. Tamara Kozulina (UKR) 4:20:15
4. Anna Cleaver (USA) 4:22:55
5. Charisa Wernick (USA) 4:23:57
