Chrissie Wellington, women’s world champion

After many attempts, super-star Chris McCormack has finally won the Ironman World Championship in Kona. McCormack took the lead in the middle miles of the marathon and then cruised away from the field, scorching the run with a 2:42:02 marathon.

Newcomer Chrissie Wellington has won the women’s race. Wellington took the lead late in the bike and then powered through the run course. She ran the marathon in 2:59:58 to just slide in under the three hour mark.

It was a somewhat strange day in Kona as many of the top favorites, including Normann Stadler, Natascha Badmann, Michellie Jones and Faris Al Sultan all dropped due to illness or injury (or did not start in the case of Al Sultan) . Although the windless, clear conditions, could have set up a victory for a cycling specialist, in the end, it was the power of two of the strongest runners in the field that took the day.

2006’s Top American Desiree Ficker had a great race going through the first two sections of the race, but faded in the run to finish in 10:40:43.

While I’m compiling my complete race report, links to my live updates are below. Read through them in sequence and you’ll get the story of the day as it unfolded.

Here are the final splits in the men’s and women’s races:

The numbers below are overall rank, total finish time, time behind the leader, bib number, swim, T1, bike, T2, run.

1 8:15:34 2 McCormack, Chris San Diego CA USA 51:48 2:23 4:37:32 1:52 2:42:02
2 8:19:04 3:30 17 Alexander, Craig Sydney AUS 51:40 1:58 4:38:11 2:04 2:45:13
3 8:21:30 5:56 37 Sindballe, Torbjorn Horsholm DNK 53:25 1:50 4:25:26 3:26 2:57:25
4 8:22:33 6:59 12 DeBoom, Timothy Boulder CO USA 51:39 1:53 4:38:20 2:15 2:48:29
5 8:23:31 7:58 6 Vanhoenacker, Marino Brugge BEL 53:21 1:59 4:33:06 2:08 2:53:00
6 8:25:49 10:15 9 Lieto, Chris Danville CA USA 51:37 2:11 4:28:18 3:29 3:00:16
7 8:26:00 10:26 5 Llanos, Eneko Vitoria-Ga ESP 51:47 2:01 4:38:12 2:18 2:51:43

1 9:08:45 107 Wellington, Chrissie Feltwell GBR 58:09 2:22 5:06:15 2:03 2:59:58
2 9:14:04 5:20 62 McGlone, Samantha Colorado S CO USA 58:07 2:15 5:10:31 2:20 3:00:52
3 9:19:13 10:28 56 Major, Kate Solana Bea CA USA 58:08 2:22 5:10:16 1:54 3:06:35
4 9:26:47 18:02 57 Lawn, Joanna Auckland NZL 58:15 2:09 5:10:18 2:22 3:13:45
5 9:26:55 18:10 104 Preston, Rebecca Buderim AUS 58:08 2:05 5:17:23 2:07 3:07:14
6 9:27:19 18:34 101 Keat, Rebekah Burleigh H AUS 58:13 2:06 5:16:03 2:43 3:08:17
7 9:33:34 24:50 110 Griesbauer, Dede Boston MA USA 53:27 2:10 5:13:06 2:51 3:22:03
8 9:36:10 27:26 116 Cave, Leanda Trowbridge GBR 53:13 2:19 5:13:46 2:32 3:24:22
9 9:37:54 29:10 58 Granger, Belinda Peregian B AUS 58:07 2:20 5:10:18 2:53 3:24:19
10 9:39:47 31:03 118 Csomor, Erika Szazhalomb HUN 1:03:18 2:31 5:29:10 3:25 3:01:25

See how the day unfolded:
Live Update #1
Live Update #2
Live Update #3
Live Update #4

For television and Internet broadcast information, click here.

Coach Joe English, Portland Oregon USA
Running Advice and News
www.running-advice.com