Craig Alexander and Mirinda Carfrae win Subaru Ironman 70.3 Muskoka Triathlon

Crowie has continued his dominance of the Subaru Ironman 70.3 Muskoka Canada,  coming off the bike 2:30 behind Paul Matthews before putting in his usual blistering run leg of 1:12:05, over what is considered a  tough course to take his third successive title.

Alexander has used this race as a final tune-up for Kona for the last three years and while this win  was  slower than his record,  his third straight win here in Muskoka shows that once again he will be the man to beat in Kona.

Fellow Australian Paul Matthews recorded a very impressive 2:16 bike split over a hilly course that’s also four km long. Matthews was eventually passed by Alexander at the 14 km point of the run. Another Australian, Chris Legh, used the second fastest run split of the day to take fourth place. Rounding out the top five was Canadian Jeff Symonds

Top 10 men
1 Alexander, Craig 3/2/1 31/MPRO 00:23:59 02:19:31 01:12:04 03:58:33
2 Matthews, Paul 2/1/2 27/MPRO 00:23:56 02:16:04 01:17:15 04:00:01
3 Tissink, Raynard 6/3/3 37/MPRO 00:24:34 02:18:42 01:18:35 04:05:13
4 LEGH, CHRIS 8/6/4 /MPRO 00:26:40 02:21:19 01:15:32 04:06:48
5 SYMONDS, Jeff –/5/5 /MPRO 00:00:00 02:50:28 01:18:08 04:09:24
6 BECHTEL, Sean 1/4/6 /MPRO 00:23:54 02:20:47 01:23:08 04:10:48
7 ALLEN, RICHARD 5/7/7 /MPRO 00:24:31 02:28:37 01:15:40 04:11:55
8 Ascenco, Santiago 7/8/8 30/MPRO 00:26:31 02:26:39 01:17:42 04:14:10
9 Jameson, Joel 11/10/9 28/MPRO 00:27:18 02:30:25 01:18:12 04:19:34
10 Guembel, Wolfgang 4/9/10 31/MPRO 00:24:21 02:29:17 01:23:37 04:20:28

In the womens race Mirinda Carfrae was able to establish a 3:30 lead on Kiwi Jo Lawn and put a further eight minutes into her on the run to win her second title here in Muskoka. This bodes well for Carfrae’s tilt at Kona, where she has already put her rivals on notice with  having set a new course record last year with her 2:56:51 marathon split. Lawn was able to hold on for second, while Canadian Ayesha Rollinson was the third pro across the line. Third overall, though, went to age-group athlete Claudia Johnston, a mother of five who finished sixth in the women’s 35-39 age group in Kona last year and is likely to be a contender for the win in 2010. Vancouver’s Amy Kirkham rounded out the top-five

Top 10 women:
1 Carfrae, Mirinda 3/1/1 29/WPRO 00:27:10 02:39:55 01:18:15 04:28:36
2 Lawn, Joanna 4/2/2 37/WPRO 00:27:11 02:42:54 01:26:45 04:40:52
3 JOHNSTON, Claudia 2/1/1 37/W35-39 00:32:37 02:41:22 01:32:37 04:51:16
4 ROLLINSON, Ayesha 2/3/3 /WPRO 00:26:51 02:51:17 01:28:58 04:51:19
5 Kirkham, Amy 6/5/4 26/WPRO 00:31:40 02:48:24 01:28:03 04:52:15
6 Whitby, Fiona 5/6/5 38/WPRO 00:31:37 02:52:04 01:34:00 05:02:25
7 Tomenson, Miranda 2/1/1 25/W25-29 00:27:45 02:50:43 01:39:44 05:03:03
8 Powell, Deborah 3/1/1 33/W30-34 00:31:57 02:52:07 01:34:30 05:04:38
9 AMARAL, Jennifer 1/4/6 /WPRO 00:26:24 02:53:01 01:47:46 05:11:41
10 Rogers, Lisa 3/1/1 43/W40-44 00:33:04 02:55:30 01:39:37 05:13:26