Australians Lisa Marangon, Courtney Gilfillan and Chloe Turner 1-2-3 at 2011 Singapore ITU Triathlon Asian Cup

Lisa Marangon led Australia’s assault at the Singapore ITU Asian Cup. Marangon finished ahead of Courtney Gilfillan and Chloe Turner to have an all Aussie podium.

Marangon, recently back from racing ITU in the USA and a training stint in Boulder enjoyed the opportunity to use her bike power to great advantage. With a 10km run still in development Lisa is working out tactics that play to her strengths. A 5th place in the San Francisco ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup recently and a 7th at ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup plus a win at the Hervey Bay Olympic distance triathlon this year and a few other sneaky sprint wins Lisa is showing that she has the potential.

ITU racing is new to Marangon after specialising in 70.3 and Ironman triathlons previously. Her win at Busselton half Ironman in 2010, 2nd place at Geelong half in 2010 and a 3rd at Lake Placid IM also in 2010 were all very impressive results but there was something else Lisa wanted to achieve before age got in the way.

Back to Singapore and with a two-lap swim course, Marangon was behind heading into the second lap of the swim after getting caught up in the turning cans. But by the end of the 1500m swim she had caught the lead pack of five all exiting the water together.

Lisa is a renowned cyclist and in the smaller female field, Lisa was able to dominate on the bike. “We all got out of the water together and into transition, I accelerated and got on the bike first putting my head down to get away. My coach Mick Maroney had told me to ride as hard as I could for the first 10k and that’s what I did.”  By lap 5 of 6 Marangon had put such a large gap between her and the rest of the field, she was able to spin the legs, and stretch in order to avoid cramping on the run.

The humidity of Singapore played havoc on the run for a lot of the competitors and the course was lined with hoses, aid stations and iced water. Despite wanting to stop numerous times, Lisa knew she had a large lead and was well on her way to winning her first ITU race.

Despite her success at ITU style races recently, Lisa will be heading to Yeppoon next weekend to again take on The Capricorn Resort Ironman 70.3.

With Lisa taking out the top place on the podium, the rest of the field battled it out for 2 and 3. For Buderim’s Chloe Turner, her place on the podium was not secure until the very end. “By the 5km mark Lisa was still running solid out the front, Courtney was at least 30 seconds to 1 minute clear in 2nd, and Jang and I were battling for the bronze. A special thanks to Josh White from the QAS who jokingly yelled out to me at the 5km turn-around, “This is your first chance for an ITU podium, don’t stuff it up.”

With the 2011 Singapore ITU Asian Cup being Chloe’s 3rd ITU race, to finish on the podium is a great achievement, and one to watch out for over the upcoming Australian season.

In men’s race Australia was also well represented on the podium with Bryce Macmaster finishing 3rd.

A strong swimmer, Bryce Macmaster led the swim with the Namibian competitor Abrahm Louw putting 30 seconds into the chase pack by the end of the swim.  Heading out of T2 Louw Surged ahead and MacMaster was left in no man’s land and decided to wait for the chase pack to tackle the strong cross winds, and save the legs.

With most of the chase pack taking off out of T2, MacMaster built steadily into his run, “T2 was quick on to the run and a few of the other competitors took off like bullets. I choose to build into my run a little more steadily as the heat and humidity would play its part later on.”

By kilometer 4, he was in 4th position, and battled right to the end with one other competitor to last kilometer to finish 3rd.

Despite finishing and requiring medical assistance, he is set to prepare for a busy August with races in America, and Hong Kong over the next few months.

McMaster dominated the Queensland triathlon circuit this past season with overall victory in the Gatorade series. He was pushed in a couple of races with Samuel Betten and Jack Hickey getting over the top of him in one of the races this season.