Liz Blatchford (9:14:52) finished third at the World Championship Ironman in Hawaii. It is the second time in three years that Liz claims a podium finish in Hawaii.
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Her Uplace-BMC team mate Romain Guillaume (8:46:56) crossed the finishline in 19th position. Unfortunately Bart Aernouts, Ronnie Schildknecht and Sofie Goos had to abandon from the race. |
What a day, what a performance |
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Liz Blatchford started off well and was able to stay in the big group chasing leader Jodie Swallow. On the bike Liz stayed in the lead group till the 80K mark. At that point, under the impulse of Danniela Ryf, the group started to split up. Liz rode her own pace from then onwards and entered transition in 8th place. During the run Liz got into her rhythm straight away and started to pick up the women in front of her one by one. With 17K to go, she passed Michelle Vesterby for third place. With one of the fastest women run splits Liz Blatchford finished the 2015 Ironman World Championship on the podium. A terrific performance by the Aussie and a fantastic result for the Uplace-BMC Pro Triathlon Team. |
Tough day |
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Due to last year’s performances Romain Guillaume, Bart Aernouts and Ronnie Schildknecht started the day with high expectations. Halfway through the race the predefined top 10 was still possible, but the heat made it brutal out there. Romain had a solid swim. He came out of the water in 4th place, only two minutes behind the leaders. Three minutes behind Romain, Bart and Ronnie jumped on the bike to start their chase. Bart moved up to 21th place, while Romain showed the Uplace-BMC-colors in front of the race with Sebastien Kienle and Jan Frodeno. Ronnie battled for a position in the top 25, but after 140K his legs were empty. He managed to enter T2, but clearly his body wasn’t able to run a marathon anymore and unfortunately Ronnie had to abandon from the race. Romain was doing a very clever race and started the 42K run in 13th position only 5' down from the lead. In the mean time Bart had done all he could to close the gap to the front group as much as possible. But unfortunately, towards the end of the bike leg, he ran out of steam. Starting the run, Bart began to struggle straight a way and 16K into the marathon also he had to abandon from the race. Romain gave his best to survive in the heat and finished in 19th. A very solid result, but not his aimed spot in the top 10. Also for Sofie Goos it wasn't the day she had hoped for. For Sofie the World Championship came at the back of a long and very tough season, finishing 2 Ironman in the last 7 weeks. Unfortunately Sofie wasn't fully recovered from this intense block of racing and had to withdrawn from the race after 120K on the bike. |
Results and pictures Race results: Relive the race: |
