This past weekend many triathletes and people just wanting to push themselves past their limits made the pilgrimage down to Busselton for the annual Ironman 70.3.
Elitesportz Specialist had a total of 13 athletes competing solo, by the completion of the event and being the Head Coach, I was mentally worn out. I had been on a ‘roller coaster’ of emotions all day.
2012′s race recorded slower times than previous years, indicating a really tough day. The swim was rough and choppy, with the water being churned up by the storm in the night. Not mention the change in course which had the athletes swimming directly East, into the dawn sun and making sighting vitually impossible.
The bike leg was as challenging as any normal Busselton long distance triathlon, but leading into a run leg which pegged the athletes against the weather. The sun turned up the heat and the rain from the day before made the air sticky and humid, many were heard likening these conditions to an Asian triathlon instead of a South West.
I felt the entire spectrum of results through our competing team. We had enormous disappoinment with Alana Holben being forced to withdraw during the bike leg after 2 flats left her without a spare and unable to continue. We had individuals who competed despite extremely interrupted preparations due to injury, illnes or abnormal work commitments.
Some of our 13 were taking on the course for the first time, so completion was the main goal, but were pushing for a good time to build off for the future.
We were elated when 7 of the 13 recorded personal bests on the day, despite the bad conditions. Finally ontop of all this we were ecstatic to have Anna-Lee Hazell, Lisa Delaurentis, and Janine Willis all place 1st in their respective age groups.
Many others placing within the top 5 of their age groups, such as Glenn Martinovich and Lauren Jones taking out 4th place, and Tom Bakowski agonisingly just missing out on first place and taking second, meant that we were happy with the results as a whole but were aware that there is room for improvement, and when they are so close to the front of the pack, we don’t have too far to go in order to have them up the top next year.
Leading off this years race, I will be very eager to have more age divisions taken out by Elitesportz athletes, and am looking forward to The elitesportz name dominating the field at Busselton Ironman 70.3 in 2013!
Results of all our athletes are listed below but can also be found on their indivual pages also.
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Anna-Lee Hazell – 1st Place 25-29, 9th Female overall, 4:44:13
30:11, 2:36:18, 1:33:53 PB -
Lauren Jones – 4th Place 25-29, 4:51:48
33:27, 2:35:15, 1:38:29 PB -
Lisa Delaurentis – 1st Place 30-34, 4:53:50
31:35, 2:26:30, 1:51:15 PB -
Janine Willis – 1st Place 35-39, 4:53:39
33:29, 2:32:16, 1:43:50 -
Glenn Martinovich – 4th Place 35-39, 4:33:06
36:31, 2:22:13, 1:30:51 -
Tom Bakowski – 2nd Open Men, 4:15:04
35:24, 2:13:50, 1:22:04 PB -
Amy Johnson – 18-24, 5:29:10
36:25, 2:43:43, 2:03:55 -
Kirstie Smith – 25-29, 5:56:22
45:31, 2:42:58, 2:20:56 PB -
Louise Crawley - 25-29, 5:50:08 – First 70.3 race
37:31, 2:56:28, 2:09:27 -
Ben Mooney – 30-34, 5:15:53
38:46, 2:42:53, 1:48:37 -
Paul Vernon – 40-44, 5:31:42 – First 70.3 race
42:57, 2:41:21, 2:00:21 -
Mike Wedderburn – 30-34, 5:34:30
42:07, 2:38:23, 2:09:14
