firstoffthebike.com - Races

McKenzie rolls in China, Macca DNF's

The word on the street in Haikau was that the weather was not going to be as menacing as it was in the previous year. But there was a sting in the tail as it got very warm towards the end of the race. But it wasn't the biblical type of weather that had triathlon journos around the world waxing lyrical over heat policies etc.

So with that issue put to bed it was up to the athletes to make headlines. The first headline was the the withdrawal of Chris McDonald. McDonald shifted to the 70.3 event, also run on the day in what was a blow to the pro field.

The two favorites in Chris McCormack and Luke McKenzie were left to duke it out as the athletes most probably in line to win. With the swim done it was McKenzie to get the desired break. McKenzie has always been a powerful swimmer and used this to his advantage to set up a break on the bike. McKenzie ripped away on the bike and set about atonement after an Ironman Malaysia that went very south. Meanwhile Chris McCormack was feeling the pinch. Around 120km on the bike his day was over. Post race he said "Stomach issues in China past 24 hours. Maybe shouldnt have started"

One man who simply went out there and took the field apart was Luke McKenzie. McKenzie has had great success in Asia and might have taken a leaf out of training partner Belinda Granger's book by going out hard on the bike and seeing if anyone could match his marathon.

His one threat on the marathon was Jozef Major who is a known runner. But it was not to be as McKenzie had a 10 minute lead out of T2 and had a burning desire to make right his Asian sojourn after a withdrawal in Malaysia where he was the defending champion. Major only took 40 seconds off him in the marathon. Third place was Jens Groenbek who ran through into 3rd.

The women's race was small with only 6 athletes finishing. On top of the pile was Amy Marsh. Marsh, the winner of Ironman Wisconsin was an absolute force opening up a 30 minute lead on the bike before it was chopped down by Heather Gollnick who withdrew.

Nicole Leder ran hard and closed the gap but like men's race the damage was done and Marsh was a clear 10 minutes ahead.

Another good year in China with Luke McKenzie continuing the form that made him famous last season.

Men's results

1. Luke Mckenzie 8:41:15
2. Jozsef Major 8:52:29
3. Jens Groenbek 9:17:06
4. Shingo Tani 9:19:01
5. Mike Schifferele 9:30:16
6. Eneko Elosegui 9:31:46
7. Justin Granger 9:41:45
8. Hiroyuki Nishiuchi 9:43:57
9. Brandon Marsh 9:52:00
10. David Bentley 9:52:51

Women's race

1. Amy Marsh 9:52:45
2. Nicole Leder 10:02:58
3. Heidi Jesberger 10:08:52
4. Maki Nishiuchi 10:21:52
5. Shiao Yu Li 10:48:26
6. Amy Simonetta 10:55:09
7. Amy Gluck 11:07:15
8. Anna Baylis-Scheiderbauer 11:09:08
9. Rebecca Kynaston 11:17:00
10. Ali Croser 11:26:10