The 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship

Australian Craig Alexander went one better than his debut last year, to become the Ford Ironman World Champion in Kona, Hawaii. Though nine minutes down on leader Torbjorn Sindballe at T2, he ran through the field to take the title. Second place (as he was at Wildflower and Ironman Germany this year), was Eneko Llanos from Spain, with Rutger Beke (BEL) third.

Despite losing around 10 minutes on the bike course due to a puncture, Chrissie Wellington smashed the field in an incredible display of power and will to defend her title by a massive 15 minutes. The finish line music was "You're unbelievable" by EMF. Chrissie - you really are! There are just not enough superlatives in the book to describe this lady. She also set a new run course record of 2:57:44, and without the mechanical problem would almost certainly have been well under the nine-hour mark. Yvonne Van Vlerken and Sandra Wallenhorst, who won Quelle Challenge Roth and Ironman Austria respectively this year, finished second and third. Wallenhorst (re)proved her run strength by also breaking the old run course record with a 2:58:35.

A brief race summary is presented below. We'll bring you more information, including an update on the Brits on Sunday. For now, we need some sleep after a long night!

Paul Amey finished 17th (8:48:58), Stephen Bayliss 19th (8:49:38). Scott Neyedli, we think, was a DNF early in the bike, though we don't know yet whether that was a mechanical issue / injury / etc. Toby Radcliffe also appears to be a DNF - he finished the bike, but didn't record a split at any of the run check-points.

Bella Comerford achieved her pre race target, taking seventh place in 9:34:08, while Leanda Cave, like Toby, does appear to have DNF'd on the run, after taking almost 28 minutes in T2.

How it happened...

The Swim

Predictably, the swim was lead out by top ITU and Ironman 70.3 swimmer Andy Potts (USA), and French veteran, Benjamin Sanson in his first Hawaii. Pete Jacobs (AUS) was the only athlete capable of going with the lead pair, and this trio built up a big lead against most of the pre-race favourites. Sanson exited the water in 48:40 with Potts and Jacobs right with him, with most of the favourites (Faris Al-Sultan, Chris McCormack, Craig Alexander, Cameron Brown, Torbjorn Sindballe, Eneko Llanos, Chris Lieto plus Brits Paul Amey and Stephen Bayliss), around three minutes back. Two-time champion Normann Stadler was a further two and a half minutes back. Scott Neyedli was out in 56:04, and Toby Radcliffe in 58:53.

For the ladies, Hilary Biscay form Team TBB led out in 54:35, followed very closely by Gina Ferguson, Gina Kehr, Nina Kraft, Leanda Cave and Dede Griesbauer. Chrissie Wellington was already showing her intentions in her 'weak' (?!) discipline, recording 56:20 (an improvement on last year's 58:09), and in 11th place at T1.

The Bike

Last year's third place finisher, Torbjorn Sindballe - "Thunder Bear" - soon made his way to the front of the field, along with American Chris Lieto. Faris Al Sultan was also not content to sit with the main pack, while Normann Stadler had time to make up after a slower swim. Chris McCormack appeared to be in control, in amongst the main 'pack', but around the turn in Hawi could be seen dropping back. This turned out to be mechanical, rather than physical, caused by a broken front gear cable. Despite seeking assistance from the on course support, it couldn't be fixed in any reasonable time and he was out of the race.

Meanwhile Chrissie appeared to be doing what she has done all year - completely dominating. Unlike previous Ironman races where her strength has been in the final 30 miles of the bike leg, today was clearly a full-on, 100% effort from the first mile. She was at the head of the field, and putting minutes into everyone within the first hour. In Frankfurt she was under orders to do "just enough" to protect an injury. Today she appeared to be racing to a different theme of "complete domination." And then it all appeared to go horribly wrong... a puncture, no service car in site, malfunctioning CO2 canisters... a five minute lead was soon turned into a five minute deficit, and reports are that Rebekah Keat actually stopped and gave her a spare tube! By the time Chrissie was back on the road, most of her hard work had been undone.

Back to the men, Torbjorn really put the hammer down in the last two hours to break away from Lieto, Al Sultan, Llanos and Stadler. He ended up with a 4:27:40 split, and another fastest bike split in Kona [correction: Ain Alar Juhanson actually rode 4:26.14 !] At T2 Sindballe lead by 4:17 from Lieto, 4:30 to Stadler, 5:21 to Llanos and 5:37 to Al Sultan. Estonian Ain-Alar Juhanson had a great bike ride to hit T2 in sixth place, just 6:19 back. The top-10 off the bike was rounded out by Bryan Rhodes, Timo Bracht, Mattias Hecht, Cameron Brown and Craig Alexander.

Where was Chrissie? Finally back on her bike, she just continued to hammer, caught up with all of the girls in front and simply biked straight past them, at times seemingly pushing an enormous gear. Despite losing an estimated 10 minutes at the side of the road, Chrissie still had a lead of over seven minutes at T2 from Belinda Grainger and Yvonne Van Vlerken, the iron-distance world record holder, set this year in Roth. Bella Comerford was 14th off of the bike, with Leanda Cave - an early leader - slowing in the final stages, back to 23rd.

The Run

Surprisingly perhaps, it was Norman Stadler who looked the freshest at the beginning of the run, and he swiftly passed a tiring Chris Lieto. Up front, Torbjorn Sindballe's lead was also evaporating fast, and he was overtaken by Norman. There was action taking place behind however and Norman wasn't going to get a third title today. Eneko Llanos (ESP), was running smoothly, as his performances at Wildflower and Frankfurt had predicted, but that didn't look like it was going to be enough either. Australian Craig Alexander, despite a slightly rough early few miles, got his running legs going and started to display the awesome speed, strength and power he has been showing during Ironman 70.3 racing this season. Past 20 miles and he was looking majestic. A 2:45 marathon meant he was able to bring it home for a three-minute victory, and become the first athlete to win both Ironman and Ironman 70.3 world titles. Llanos ran well to take another second place in a major event this year, while Rutger Beke (BEL) ran 2:47:49 to finish strongly on the podium, and just head off the challenge of Ronnie Schildknecht.

Chrissie Wellington. Well, do you really need me to tell you she was looking amazing on the run too?! 10 miles in, and despite the earlier technical issues on the bike, she was 11 minutes clear of Yvonne Van Vlerken, 15 minutes ahead of the fast-moving Sandra Wallenhorst and looking set for a sub-three hour marathon.