Great Britain’s Laura Siddall wins IRONMAN Australia
She has been in fantastic and improving form for the past 18 months or more, but on Sunday Laura Siddall ended her run of seemingly always being the ‘bridesmaid’, by taking the biggest win of her professional career at IRONMAN Australia in Port Macquarie.
A very close second at Challenge Wanaka in both 2016 and 2017, her recent full distance M-Dot starts have seen her take third at IRONMAN Malaysia 2016 and second at IRONMAN New Zealand 2017. She’s now taken the final step to become an IRONMAN Champion. Congratulations Laura, and welcome to the British winners club.
Turning Pro relatively ‘late’, Laura won Age-Group World Championship titles at Sprint, Standard and 70.3 formats and is now one of the raft of highly talented and consistent British women competing around the world.
We took a detailed look at the bike she did it on earlier this year – and it was her strong cycling again which really put her out of sight. Third out of the water, but within four minutes of early leader Karen Thibodeau (AUS), Siddall took over once on to her Ceepo and took control, cycling over 18 minutes quicker than eventual second place finisher, Michelle Gailey (AUS).
At 90km of #IMOZ @lmsiddall leads @karen_thibodeau by 5:55 @MichelleGailey in third 7:02 back. pic.twitter.com/zaNJCxWu4i
— IronmanLIVE.com (@IRONMANLive) May 7, 2017
A big lead starting the run, Laura extended that further with a 3:13:05 marathon to take the biggest win of her career to date. Still on the up, we can realistically expect even more from an athlete who is already a member of the Sub-9 Club.
.@lmsiddall takes her first IRONMAN title at #IMOZ in a time of 9:16.38. pic.twitter.com/pCaALL3Zmh
— IronmanLIVE.com (@IRONMANLive) May 7, 2017
IRONMAN Australia, Port Macquarie – Sunday 7th May 2017
3.8km / 180km / 42.2km
PRO WOMEN
1st – Laura Siddall (GBR) – 9:16:38
2nd – Michelle Gailey (AUS) – 9:44:15
3rd – Jessica Mitchell (AUS) – 9:53:48
PRO MEN
1st – David Dellow (AUS) – 8:15:35
2nd – Tim Reed (AUS) – 8:22:42
3rd – Clayton Fettell (AUS) – 8:30:02