Podium for Great Britain's Laura Siddall at SunSmart Ironman 70.3 Mandurah
Great Britain's Laura Siddall excelled in the Age-Group ranks. Ironman 70.3 World Champion in 2013, a week later she managed the same in Hyde Park at the ITU World Championships, adding to prior Gold in 2012 (Auckland) and 2011 (Beijing). Now racing in the professional ranks under the guidance of coach Matt Dixon, Laura produced a strong performance on Sunday to take third place at Ironman 70.3 Mandurah in Australia. Switzerland's Caroline Steffen was a dominating winner, but Laura's splits versus the very accomplished Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED), who took second place, should provide great encouragement for her Southern Hemisphere racing through to the 2016 season. Great job.
Full report below courtesy of Daniel Hoy / www.ironman.com.
Internationals find success against the locals in Western Australia
Swiss superstar Caroline Steffen produced a dominant performance to claim a wire-to-wire victory at SunSmart IRONMAN 70.3 Mandurah while Frenchman Denis Chevrot continued his winning ways in Western Australia.
Chevrot's performance provided the perfect warm-up to his title defence at SunSmart IRONMAN Western Australia in four weeks.
"I'm happy to win, but I didn't expect that today. I really hope I can do the same thing again in four weeks in Busselton. While each race is different, it does give me confidence for Busselton," says Chevrot.
Unbeaten over the IRONMAN 70.3 distance this year, the win was Steffen's fifth in a row, with Yvonne Van Vlerken second and Great Britain's Laura Siddall rounding out the podium.
"I'm glad to come back here this year and get the win.I had a perfect day today, that doesn't happen very often."
Men's Race
Chevrot was made to work for his victory by young Australian professional Jake Montgomery who produced the race of his short career to hold on for second with 2013 champion Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) in third.
Montgomery set the early pace leading Chevrot out of the water by 37 seconds, closely followed by a second group that included pre-race favourite Bozzone and Luke Bell.
He put the hammer down early on the bike and by 45km his lead over Bell and fellow Australian Casey Munro was 1:50, with Bozzone and Chevrot almost three minutes back.
Holding onto the lead over his more fancied rivals, Montgomery entered T2 with a 3:25 gap to Bozzone with Chevrot 5:27 back in third, while Bell dropped eighth and over nine minutes off the lead after a stint in the penalty box.
Montgomery, who has just made the switch from short course racing to IRONMAN 70.3, held onto the lead until the 16km mark when Chevrot overtook and from there the Frenchman extended his lead to win by over a minute.
"Jake had a great race. I had to work very hard to catch him. It was a great performance," says Chevrot.
For Montgomery, it was the biggest day in his short career and a sign of things to come.
"I was confident in the swim and felt good on the bike. I was trying to hold a bit back, but my lead just kept growing."
"I was pretty tired getting off the bike, and when Dennis passed me I just didn't have anything left. I'm pretty happy with second, it was great to get my first podium."
Women's Race
In the women's race Steffen stamped her authority on the race early exiting the water closely followed by Alise Farrelly and local professional Katey Gibb, with Van Vlerken 2:40 back.
Steffen led Gibb by 2:56 and Van Vlerken by 3:32 by the 45km mark on the bike, with the lead ballooning to over four minutes to Van Vlerken and six minutes to Great Britain's Laura Siddall by the end of the 90km journey.
Steffen continued to gap the field on the run to win by over five minutes, notching up the 20th IRONMAN 70.3 title of her career.
Top 5 Male Pros
1
Denis Chevrot
FRA
3:45:39
2
Jake Montgomery
AUS
3:46:33
3
Terenzo Bozzone
NZL
3:47:26
4
Nicholas Kastelein
AUS
3:50:52
5
Casey Monro
AUS
3:55:28
Top 5 Female Pros
1
Caroline Steffen
SUI
4:04:50
2
Yvonne van Vlerken
NED
4:10:14
3
Laura Siddall
GBR
4:12:19
4
Katey Gibb
AUS
4:15:32
5
Alise Farrelly
AUS
4:22:48