McKenzie leads charge in Japan - our 3 IM wrap-up

Sunday, 22 June 2008

Luke McKenzie has certainly done the business this weekend in an action packed three days of Ironman racing. This weekend was full of exciting racing across three continents. From former polka dot jersey winners of the Tour de France, to a man on a mission to win his first Ironman and a wrong turn mid race this weekend seemed to have it all.

Ironman Japan

This was the charge of the Australians. Luke McKenzie put a few demons to rest after some less than inspiring performances with a great display to take out Ironman Japan. His main competition for the day was fellow Australian in Mitch Anderson. Mitch had a good day out but was unable to bridge the gap McKenzie opened up. For Mitch's race run down click here. In third was a flying Hans Muehlbauer who was only one minute down on Anderson. The women's event was also a race in two with Naomi Imaizumi taking the win with Bree Wee in second some four minutes down. The rest of the field was a few minutes back with Sarah Pollett grabbing the last step of the podium. The firstoffthebike.com pollsters got it almost right, with a couple of 2nd places!

Ironman France

One of the most challenging Ironman courses in the world, France absolutely lived up to its' reputation. And so did Marcel Zamora Perez. Seen pictured above Perez ran an incredible 2.45 marathon to destroy the rest of the field including the likes of Rutger Beke. Herve Faure and Patrick Bringer did a good job of staying close but it was Perez who stole the show. The defending champion put the foot down in the marathon to never be headed. The women's event was owned by Martina Dogana. The 29 year old from Italy smashed the field by over 25 minutes to record the best victory of the weekend. Katja Schumacher was 25 minutes back and never in the hunt as she was out biked and run by Dogana. Our predictions were pretty spot on too! (well almost)

A footnote to the race was the performance of polka dot and green jersey winner of the Tour de France in Laurent Jalabert. Consider his day. He came out of the water in 716th place after a 1.06. He then smashed the bike to record a 4.45. That's an average speed of 37.8kmph and a jump of 700 places. He is now 16th overall. He then hangs tough to run a 3.13 marathon and take 12th overall. Truly a remarkable man. Ja Ja (not binks just Ja Ja!) as he is known rode the Tour with panache and daring and looks like nothing has changed!

Ironman Coeur d'Alene

Reports filtering in from Couer d'Alene sees Tom Evans as the winner of this one. He took out the race by a comfortable margin with Victor Zyemtsev in second and our man pre race favorite Michael Lovato in third place. The women's race was won by Heather Wurtele a huge way in front of Heather Gollnick in second. Wurtele had 12 mins to her next rival in what was a convincing win.