Rasmus Henning wins 2012 Abu Dhabi International Triathlon

Rasmus Henning has taken out the 2012 Abu Dhabi International Triathlon after running Faris Al-Sultan down in the last stages of the run. He was one of the leaders out of the water albeit 51sec down on renowned swimmer Clayton Fettell. His T1 was average and he came out on to the bike 1:33 down on the leaders. He then settled in with the chase pack and made sure he preserved his legs for the run.

This is a long race as Clayton Fettell and Paul Ambrose found out after 200kms on the bike. Something happened to Fettell at the end of the ride that put him almost 6mins back out of T2. We are still waiting to find out what went on.

Fettell lead out no to the bike and was soon joined by Ambrose with the two Aussies putting the hammer down and making the rest of the field have to work hard to stay in touch.

A group of four men including Australians Clayton Fettell, Paul Ambrose along with Andrew Starykowicz and Faris Al-Sultan had formed towards the end of the bike with a 5min + lead on a chase pack of 8. As mentioned above something happened to Fettel just before the end that saw him drop back in to the chase pack. To add to the drama of the race Starykowicz crashed at the end of the bike and is reported to have broken his collarbone/shoulder. This saw him pull out of the race just as the guys headed out on to the run.

This left Paul Ambrose in the lead out of T2. Al-Sultan was around 1:45 down on Ambrose but set about reeling him in as quickly as possible. 4mins behind Al-Sultan was a group of 9 guys who all thundered out of T2 together. The sight was electric and this was going to be an exciting running race.

By the 5km mark Ambrose had fallen back in to the pack and had lost the 5min lead he had on the bunch. Al-Sultan was now leading with a 2:40 lead over Eneko Llanos with Henning in 3rd only 7secs behind.

At this point Bockel, Llanos and Henning were all in touch. Off the bike Henning started the 20km run with a 4:13 deficit and had to use almost the entire 20kms to eventually run down Faris Al-Sultan.

This was an exciting race and the feedback from triathlon fans has been that it was great to follow online. The amount of timing stations meant that you could get regular updates of how the race was evolving.

Whilst none of the four Australian guys made it on to the podium there was some valuable data taken away no doubt as they head in to their final stages of preparation for Ironman Melbourne. Having three Aussies in the top ten was a great achievement and for Clayton Fettell who is just stepping on to the world long distance stage this would have been a very good experience.

For Ambrose the coverage that he would have received for his team and sponsors would have been invaluable.