Corrine Abraham from Great Britain wins Ironman Melbourne 2013

After putting in a bike time almost as fast as some of the lead male pros this ‘newish’ triathlete has had an incredibly fast rise to the top. In 2010 Corinne wanted to complete a long distance triathlon ‘a reasonable time’ and now in 2013 she has won Ironman Melbourne in a tougher than average field.

Abraham gave up four minutes in the swim to the reigning Ironman Melbourne champion but rode eleven minutes faster than one of the strongest female cyclists in the sport to have sizeable advantage heading out on to the run.

The lead female bike group swapped the lead many times with Steffen attempting to dominate once she caught the lead women. What she didn’t take in to account was that Natasha Badmann, Meredith Kessler and Nina Pekerman were going to take this race to her. These three women put the pressure on and kept it up until Abraham put her mark on the group. Badmann went on to finish 4th overall. After watching Badmann race at Kona last year and then seeing her put in this performance we can’t help but be impressed with her comeback to the sport.

The run was a replication of the bike with Abraham. A 2:56 marathon was almost as fast as the leading men. At the end of the day Abraham finished almost 16mins ahead of second placed Yvonne van Vlerken.

van Vlerken received a penalty on the bike as did Ironman first timer Anna Cleaver. The shortened swim meant that Cleaver, along with Amanda Stevens and Meredith Kessler did did not enjoy the extended lead that they should have had on a normal Ironman day.

Cleaver, in her first ever Ironman, was pleased with her 7th overall which included a 3:08 run. This will have surprised many that don’t rate her as a fast long distance runner. She was using this race as a learning experience for her goal Ironman in six months.

Yvonne van Vlerken was someone we said in the preview that will be a strong podium certainty and could even threaten for the win. However this did not take in to account the absolutely stunning form that Abraham took in to this race.

As mentioned van Vlerken had a penalty on the bike which took a bit of wind out of her sails. She was upbeat at the end and in really good condition considering what she had just done.

New Zealand’s Gina Crawford came home in 5th place with Amanda Stevens finishing off a great race and just getting home ahead of a faster finishing Anna Cleaver.

One of the funniest things happened at the podium with van Vlerken dropping the champagne bottle on to the ground. It popped the cork and the bottle shot across the finishing area like a missile.