Australian Paul Matthews and Chrissie Wellington win Ironman 70.3 Kansas – report and results
Australia's Paul 'Barny' Matthews won Ironman 70.3 in Kansas. He did it in style finishing 6 minutes ahead of 2nd placed David Khan from the USA with Australia's Luke Bell a further 30 seconds back in 3rd place. A standout of Matthews race was his run of 1:12. He smoked the rest
Australia’s Paul ‘Barny’ Matthews won Ironman 70.3 in Kansas. He did it in style finishing 6 minutes ahead of 2nd placed David Khan from the USA with Australia’s Luke Bell a further 30 seconds back in 3rd place.
A standout of Matthews race was his run of 1:12. He smoked the rest of the field with only 10th placed Torsten Abel getting close at 1:14. It looks like Paul Matthews and Luke Bell came in to T2 together but that was the last they saw of each other as Matthews charged off.
Josh Rix finished in 11th place after a tough day at the office. He was in 5th place of the bike but hit 7kms on the run and faded. Arriving on
Wednesday in USA took its toll on him more than most. Aussie Chris Kemp struggled on the run today. Kemp had a solid 4th at the recent Port Macquarie 70.3 finishing only 6 minutes behind Joe Gambles. Kemp won the Gold Coast half ironman in 2010 in atrocious conditions against a solid field.
In the woman’s race the queen of long distance triathlon, Chrissie Wellington won but she didn’t have it all her own way. GBR’s Leanda Cave was a minute faster out of the water and then put another two minutes in to Wellington on the bike. This was a good lead but when you are racing a woman who can out run most of the guys you need a big lead. Bigger than three minutes! Wellington ran a 1:16 for the 4th fastest run of the day to overtake Cave and take the race.
Whitney Garcia took out the final podium place just ahead of Australia’s Madeleine Oldfield who is in
the USA for the first time racing as pro. Oldfield showed coach and fellow competitor Josh Rix how to do it today. Oldfield was stoked with her race and her goal of a top 6 finish was well and truly achieved. She set a PB in the run leg of 1:27:40. Odlfield’s next race will be at Buffalo Springs, Texas in two weeks.
Madeliene Oldfield finished 2nd at the Port Macquarie 70.3 behind New Zealand’s Joanna Lawn in May and backed up a week later to for a solid 6th on the other side of the country in the Busselton 70.3.
| POS | ATHLETE | AGE/DIV | SWIM | BIKE | RUN | TOTAL |
| 1 | Matthews, Paul | 28/MPRO | 0:24:39 | 2:10:41 | 1:12:45 | 3:49:44 |
| 2 | Kahn, David | 28/MPRO | 0:24:42 | 2:12:11 | 1:17:08 | 3:55:46 |
| 3 | Bell, Luke | 32/MPRO | 0:24:46 | 2:10:30 | 1:19:00 | 3:56:13 |
| 4 | Guillaume, Romain | 26/MPRO | 0:24:57 | 2:13:37 | 1:18:44 | 3:59:17 |
| 5 | McDaniel, Joe | 29/MPRO | 0:25:32 | 2:16:21 | 1:16:40 | 4:00:53 |
| 6 | Castillo, Andres | 33/MPRO | 0:24:41 | 2:17:14 | 1:19:20 | 4:03:22 |
| 7 | Poulson, Brent | 29/MPRO | 0:24:55 | 2:20:01 | 1:16:58 | 4:04:18 |
| 8 | Umphenour, Joe | 42/MPRO | 0:24:44 | 2:21:14 | 1:17:12 | 4:05:18 |
| 9 | White, Tony | 26/MPRO | 0:27:05 | 2:19:43 | 1:16:58 | 4:05:56 |
| 10 | Abel, Torsten | 32/MPRO | 0:25:32 | 2:23:40 | 1:14:53 | 4:06:33 |
| 11 | Rix, Joshua | 33/MPRO | 0:25:31 | 2:14:48 | 1:24:20 | 4:06:39 |
| 40 | Kemp, Christian | 31/MPRO | 0:24:46 | 2:26:19 | 1:34:01 | 4:27:13 |
| POS | ATHLETE | AGE/DIV | SWIM | BIKE | RUN | TOTAL |
| 1 | Wellington, Chrissie | 34/WPRO | 0:27:41 | 2:24:09 | 1:16:41 | 4:11:08 |
| 2 | Cave, Leanda | 33/WPRO | 0:26:49 | 2:22:02 | 1:23:53 | 4:15:13 |
| 3 | Garcia, Whitney | 31/WPRO | 0:31:36 | 2:25:43 | 1:26:45 | 4:27:17 |
| 4 | Oldfield, Madeleine | 24/WPRO | 0:30:18 | 2:29:17 | 1:27:40 | 4:29:18 |
| 5 | Arendt, Jackie | 27/WPRO | 0:30:06 | 2:32:43 | 1:27:06 | 4:32:39 |
| 6 | Paterson, Lesley | 31/WPRO | 0:32:57 | 2:28:47 | 1:28:39 | 4:33:05 |
| 7 | Ritchie, Tami | 28/WPRO | 0:27:20 | 2:35:58 | 1:28:40 | 4:34:27 |
| 8 | Capone, Lauren | 23/W18-24 | 0:30:52 | 2:40:12 | 1:24:00 | 4:38:26 |
| 9 | Piampiano, Sarah | 31/W30-34 | 0:36:01 | 2:31:46 | 1:31:24 | 4:42:42 |
| 10 | Smith, Lesley | 28/WPRO | 0:34:55 | 2:40:22 | 1:24:44 | 4:42:59 |
