McCormack, Hauschildt in Phuket
Chris McCormack dropped Ruedi Wild on the run to take the final Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket. Melissa Hauschildt dominated the women's race to and successfully defended her title from 2011 which she raced under her maiden name Rollison.
The men
Alberto Casadei led the men out of the water in 24:48 and gave him a small advantage over Swiss Olympian Ruedi Wild and Thai Pro Simon Agoston. Macca though was also well within striking distance with a 25:30 swim.
Casadei led the bike early on, but was passed by Chris Lieto before the halfway point. Chris Lieto's 2:17:47 bike split was in fact fastest in Laguna Phuket, but not by much. Macca had ridden a 2:18:37, Wild a 2:18:57 and Casadei a 2:19:00. Age grouper Tim Meyer's 2:20:29 was very impressive brought the young German to the bike-run transition in 5th place.
Out on the run it did not take very long for McCormack and Wild to charge past Lieto, and in the second half of the run the fast Aussie managed to pull away from Wild. McCormack closed out his day with a 1:17:40 run to take the win in 4:04:40. Wild hung on to second place in 4:07:17, but barely. Fast German age grouper Meyer had the fastest run in 1:16:57 and that allowed him to finish 3rd, just 15 seconds behind Wild.
The women
Only 4 female Pros were at the start in Laguna Phuket and Radka Vodickova was first out of the water in 26:55. Defending champion Melissa Rollison was almost 3 minutes behind her, but the best two disciplines still were coming up for the 2011 Ironman 70.3 World Champion.
Rollison rode a fast 2:27:27 time on the bike and that gave her a nice gap over Vodickova and Granger. Just as Hauschildt reached the transition area in 10th place overall the rain came down hard.
Hauschildt though seemed not deterred by the downpour and finished her race with a 1:23:23 run and a total time of 4:23:30 – for 8th place overall. Vodickova finished in second place and Granger captured third place.
Although this is the final Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket, Challenge Family just announced the launch of the Challenge Laguna Phuket Tri-Fest from November 24th – December 1st 2013.
Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket
Phuket, Thailand / December 2, 2012
Top men
1. Chris McCormack (AUS) 4:04:40
2. Ruedi Wild (SWI) 4:07:17
3. Tim Meyer (GER) 4:07:32 * AG M18-24
4. Alberto Casadei (ITA) 4:08:06
5. Fredrik Croneborg (SWE) 4:14:16
Top women
1. Melissa Hauschildt (AUS) 4:23:30
2. Radka Vodickova (CZE) 4:31:26
3. Belinda Granger (AUS) 4:41:53
4. Tamsin Lewis (GBR) 4:42:53
5. Liz Fancutt (AUS) 5:01:44 * AG W40-44
