Nov. 4, 2006 -- On a rain-soaked course, Australia's Belinda Granger today narrowly took out the women's field in the inaugural Snap Ironman 70.3 at Port Macquarie, putting the disappointment of a eighth place at the Ford Ironman World Championships in Hawaii two weeks ago behind her by winning the event by just 31 seconds ahead of Lisa Marangon. Denmark's Torbjorn Sindballe took out the men's division ahead of his campaign to win the world long course championships in Canberra on Nov. 19. Gold Coast-based Jason Shortis also returned to good form and health to place second in the men's division.
Stephen Hackett led the field out of the 1.9km swim with Andrew Mackay a further 20 seconds back. The chase group was a succession of athletes including Matthew Clark, Switzerland's Mathias Hecht, Danish national team member Torbjorn Sindballe, Paul Ambrose and Boyd Conrick. Pre-race favourite Jason Shortis was two minutes down as he traded his wetsuit for the bike.
Angie Sharp was the leading female to exit the water with a good lead from Charlotte Paul who had a great swim coming out second, Belinda Granger and Lisa Marangon all within 20 meters of each other.
At the 10km mark of the ride Hackett maintained a small lead from Sindballe who was making his move while Hecht and Dane Jens Koefoed moved into contention. Gaining the lead at 30 kilometers Sindballe, a former World Long Course champion, continued to put time into the field and by 60kilometers he held a 2:40mins in front of Hecht and Koefoed. Shortis was dragging the main group around that included Chris McDonald, Rix, early race leader Hackett, Conrick, Matthew Clark and Paul Ambrose but they were having little impact on catching the leader falling further behind now 3:25mins in arrears.
"Josh (Rix) and I did a lot of the work on the bike to try and pull back some time on Sindballe," said Shortis after the race.
In the women's field Granger had hit the lead by the half way mark into the 90km cycle leg extending her gap to Sharp to 1:07mins, Marangon was another 1min further back and Paul falling further behind now 4:40mins in arrears.
A fiercely determined Granger continued to extend her lead on the bike showing her class over the rest of the field who were now struggling to stay in touch with her. Marangon had moved through to hold down second spot relegating early race leader Sharp to third and slipping further behind.
Once onto the run Granger was setting a good pace but Marangon was making up some time in the early stages and got to within 50 seconds with just 3km to go.
"I felt really good in the swim and comfortable on the bike, I love the hills hear but my legs faltered in the back end of the run," said Granger. "Forget my race, Lisa had an awesome race hear today, I'm just amazed she even started after the car accident," added Granger.
In am emotional second place here today Marangon stopped to embrace her son Joshua just before the finish before dissolving in tears as she crossed the line.
"I was in a bad car accident just a week ago and wasn't sure if I'd even be able to get through the swim today, so to finish second I'm just over the moon and looking forward to Ironman WA," said Marangon.
Heading back into transition Sindballe had extended his lead to a whopping 4:15min, the chase group had swallowed up Hecht, Koefoed to form one pack that entered transition in a peleton - Rix, Hackett, Clark, Koefoed, Conrick, Shortis took his time and was the last to exit.
In the first 3km Shortis had made up two minute on Sindballe after making sure he took his time in transition to ensure he was prepared for the next 21.1km.
By the 12km mark Sindballe had managed to hold Shortis away with 3:35min lead from the Victorian Rix a further 45 seconds back.
In the closing stages of the run Shortis continued to close on Sindballe but ran out of time and the Dane crossed the line 1:50min ahead of Shortis.
Rix, who was competing in just his fourth half Ironman, rounded out the podium. Sindballe's team mate Koefoed finished fourth today with Albury's McDonald securing fifth spot.
"I am very happy to win here today and a good preparation for the World Champs," said Sindballe
"I really enjoyed the Aussie crowd who gave me good support," he added.
Shortis was not too disappointed with second here today and is looking forward to competing in Ironman Western Australia on December 3 when he will attempt to win his second title.
Spirits weren't dampened despite the rain with a huge field of 912 athletes taking part in the event today -- all vying for one of 75 slots at the Ford Ironman 70.3 World Championship event and 250 qualifying slots to next year's Panthers Ironman Australia.
Snap Ironman 70.3 triathlonPort Macquarie, AustraliaNov. 5, 20061.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 26.2-mile runMen:1. Torbjorn Sindballe (Denmark) 4:03:31
2. Jason Shortis (Aus) 4:05:23
3. Joshua Rix (Aus) 4:06:45
4. Jens Koefoed (Denmark) 4:07:49
5. Chris McDonald (Aus) 4:09:43
Female:1. Belinda Granger (Aus) 4:35:55
2. Lisa Marangon (Aus) 4:36:26
3. Angela Sharp (Aus) 4:40:00