Kate Major wins, Tim Berkel 2nd and Paul Ambrose 3rd at the 2010 Rhode Island Ironman 70.3 Triathlon – Top 200 Results

In a great day for Australian triathletes in the USA Kate Major, Tim Berkel, Paul Ambrose, Richie Cunningham, Michellie Jones and Carrie Lester all placed in the top seven at the 2010 Rhode Island Ironman 70.3.

Kate Major managed to stay 22 seconds ahead of Caitlin Snow after Snow put in a blistering 1:19 half marathon to almost catch Kate. After two 5th’s and a 2nd placing in 70.3 this year this win must have been a welcome breakthrough for Kate.

It was great to see  Richie Cunningham back running well. Richie hasn’t been happy with his running this year with one half marathon of around 1:30 in a 70.3.

Paul Ambrose  and  Tim Berkel (pictured) are also on fire. Tim finished 50 seconds behind Kiwi Torenzo Bozzone who has been winning some serious races  recently in the USA.

Could this have been Tim’s race? After pulling away from Torenzo, Graham O’Grady and Richie Cunningham on the bike Tim was holding a 20-30 second lead coming in to T2  when an incident with a photographer’s motorbike meant that Torenzo came around him and entered T2 ahead. On top of this Tim had rolled his ankle. A breakthrough win in the USA does not see far away from Tim with the way he is racing right now.

A mention to another Kiwi Samantha Warriner who placed third in the women’s race.

Paul Ambrose’s performance was top notch considering he has not been well recently and had a below average performance at Ironman 70.3 UK a month ago. After going well on the swim and bike in the UK triathlon, Paul struggled on the run and posted a 1:27 half marathon and faded to 8th place.

After the Rhode Island 70.3 Paul said “The race went well considering this past month I have been battling with a severe chest infection and haven’t been able to train that much. I refused to let it get the better of my trying to race UK.70.3 a month prior but didn’t go well as expected.”

Feeling like his health was getting back to normal Ambrose was keen to race at Rhode Island. “Rhode island was the first race back since I started to feel healthy again. I felt like the swim was easy for me and on the ride I felt like I was only pushing at 90% and got away from the main group. I felt great.”

After the bike Ambrose was starting to think that this might be his race. “I thought I might have got away with a win on the run because I was still feeling good but the lack of training and fitness kicked in. This ultimately cost me my lead and I placed 3rd in the end. Still I was happy to be healthy and fit again.”

What now for Paul? “Time to put some training back in then my next races will be Washington 70.3 and Ironman Louisville.”