Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore won by ITU Triathlon Specialist Kris Gemmell

James Cunnama pulled back New Zealander Kris Gemmell’s lead to under a minute by the end of the race off the back of a very strong bike leg. Cunnama and Scotland’s Scott Neyedli worked together for very strong bike after coming out of the water almost three minutes down on the lead pack. Gemmell was too quick on the run however and took a win on his debut at Singapore.

Kris Gemmell won in Wellington, New Zealand, last weekend in the ITU Oceania Cup holding off rising Australian ITU Triathletes Aaron Royle and Cameron Good with New Zealand’s Ryan Sissons placing 3rd between the two Aussies.

Gemmell was stoked about the win in hot and humid conditions with a 70.3 Singapore bada bing bada BOOM! Great 2 get the big W on debut here. Very hot & humid bt awesum race. Yeeha’ on his twitter.

Australia’s Pete Jacobs was third overall and fellow Aussie Christian Kemp was 7th overall. Jacob’s won the Australian long course triathlon last weekend in Huskisson and Kemp raced the sprint triathlon in the same triathlon festival winning against world ITU duathlon champion Bart Aernouts.

Four times Australian Ironman champion Patrick Vernay was fourth overall with a slower swim than the lead bunch but one of the stronger bike legs on the day.

Pete Jacobs is still far from his peak fitness so we should see some big improvements from him over the next few months as he progresses towards Kona in October. It is scary to think that he still has a lot of headroom left. During the week he didn’t have the ideal lead up with not being able to ride properly due to some ‘chaffing’ from the race last weekend. He was left feeling a bit light headed during the swim today and really felt the long run from the swim to T1. One of the good takeaways from the race today was that he was able to ride in a big gear with a relatively low heart rate. The run saw him fading as early as 3kms but he managed to cement 3rd place early on in the run and despite nearly cramping towards the end of the run he held on.

The women’s race was won by Mary Beth Ellis from the USA with compatriot Amy Marsh second. Australia’s Michelle Wu ran herself in to 3rd place from being almost four minutes down after the swim and was possibly beaten on the bike by some strong ‘team work’ employed by some of the other pro women if reports out from Singapore are anything to go by. The weekend before Wu had, like Pete Jacobs, won the Australian long course triathlon.