It was Australia Day in Hawaii today, with an amazing set of performances by a whole host of our most underrated athletes, not the least of which is Michellie Jones, our greatest ever Triathlete male or female.
A decade after famously declaring she would never race the Hawaiian Ironman, Michellie Jones today became only the second Australian to win triathlon’s most famous race.
Australia enjoyed its greatest day in the history of the Ironman-distance world championship, with Chris McCormack taking second behind Germany’s two-time champion Normann Stadler as they produced the third-closest men’s finish in race history.
It was McCormack’s best result at Hawaii with compatriot Luke Bell seventh, giving the two Australians their second top-10 finishes in Kona.
The five Australian-born top-10 women from last year also repeated the feat.
Apart from Jones, Austrian national Kate Allen was fifth, Kate Major took sixth, Belinda Granger finished eighth and Melissa Ashton was ninth.
I remember when Jones made that quote, and many of us in the Triathlon community laughed or were outraged because we never really believed her denial and thought her comments were somewhat dismissive of the race and distance. Me? I laughed, because very few quality Triathletes can resist the challenge of the distance or the urge to race the sport’s version of Wimbledon at least once.
And so it’s come to pass that thankfully Jones broke her word, raced and won, and in in the process booked herself a place amongst the greatest of Australia’s female athletes - and our greatest Triathlete ever.
The leaderboard and time splits are over the fold, and for those not familiar with the distances the race comprises a 3.8k swim, 180k bike and 42.2k run.
Having done Ironman Canada way back in ‘89 I can attest to the physical and mental difficulty of the distance, it was easily the most demanding thing I have ever done in sport.
Women.
1 09:18:31 72 Jones, Michellie Carlsbad CA USA
54:29 5:06:09 3:13:08
2 09:24:02 111 Ficker, Desiree Austin TX USA
1:01:46 5:05:06 3:11:50
3 09:25:18 85 Bentley, Lisa Caledon ON CAN
1:01:31 5:10:32 3:08:54
4 09:27:24 117 Kehr, Gina Redwood City CA USA
54:02 5:16:11 3:12:29
5 09:30:22 75 Allen, Katherine Innsbruck AUT
59:48 5:10:34 3:14:51
6 09:31:53 73 Major, Kate Solana Beach CA USA
1:01:34 5:08:24 3:17:46
7 09:32:48 74 Lawn, Joanna Aucland NZL
59:48 5:10:20 3:18:17
8 09:35:48 77 Granger, Belinda Queensland QLD AUS
59:44 5:01:45 3:25:50
9 09:38:22 80 Ashton, Melissa Newtown NSW AUS
59:46 5:10:42 3:22:37
10 09:38:52 71 Badmann, Natascha Oftringen SWI
1:06:43 4:59:04 3:27:54
Men.
1 08:11:56 26 Stadler, Normann Mannheim GER
54:05 4:18:23 2:55:03
2 08:13:07 6 McCormack, Chris Sydney NSW AUS
53:51 4:29:24 2:46:02
3 08:19:04 1 Al-Sultan, Faris Munich GER
53:36 4:29:37 2:50:44
4 08:21:04 4 Beke, Rutger Leuven BEL
54:35 4:33:33 2:48:16
5 08:22:28 121 Llanos, Eneko Vitoria-Gast ARA ESP
53:45 4:29:26 2:55:00
6 08:24:17 31 Vanhoenacker, Marino Brugge BEL
54:04 4:29:13 2:56:59
7 08:24:26 13 Bell, Luke Melbourne VIC AUS
53:57 4:29:34 2:56:55
8 08:25:22 2 Brown, Cameron Howick Auckl NZL
53:55 4:29:26 2:58:05
9 08:27:37 18 Lieto, Chris Danville CA USA
53:48 4:25:35 3:02:47
10 08:28:13 12 Vernay, Patrick Noumea NCL
54:36 4:36:12 2:52:48
5 responses so far ↓
Shaun // Oct 24, 2006 at 9:46 am
8 - 9 hours. ..I can’t imagine participating in an event like that.
Phil // Oct 24, 2006 at 6:59 pm
Try 12. that’s how long it took me back in ‘89. Never again, I much preferred the 1/2 Ironman distance, 4-4.5 hours……..nice.
Shaun // Oct 24, 2006 at 9:07 pm
How do you train for a 12 hour effort? Is it a manner of building up stamina in all three disciplines and putting it together on the day?
Phil // Oct 24, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Yep, five hours a day, weekdays with longer enduro sessions on the weekend. 6 hour bikes followed by a swim. Or 30k runs, followed by an evening swim.
During heavy training sessions my usual weekly distances were 11+k swim, 3-400k bike and 70-100k running depending. You had to be flexible and back in the mid eighties there was a lot of experimentation on training methodology, I wasn’t as smart or as informed as they are nowdays.
Also specific sessions related to transitioning from one discipline to the next, the bike to run being the most important.
I used to do “brick” sessions that comprised 10 minutes hard on an indoor trainer at the running track then 1000’s running, rinse and repeat 6-10 times, just to get your legs used to the sensation. That was ugly.
The racing was easier than the training.
Shaun // Oct 24, 2006 at 9:46 pm
Bloody hell. And I’m sitting here stoked that I got through a 20 minute half walk/half run far better than I expected.
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