Hi All,
Let's start our weekly recap with last weekend's Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida. Let's just say - it was fast. Very fast. How fast? According to triathlonranking.com, in the 33 70.3 events in 2009, there was one man who broke 3:45 over the 70.3 distance - Marino Van Hoenacker at Antwerp 70.3 (3:41:46). That time would not have earned Van Hoenacker a place in the Top 10 at Clearwater last weekend. Unreal. The winner, Michael Raelert, posted remarkable splits of a 21:58 swim, a 1:59:35 ride, and a ridiculous 69:05 run to win the world title by 2-and-a-half minutes in a record-shattering 3:34:04! Raelert, a relative unknown (he has one Top 10 finish in a 70.3 race this season as he raced mostly non-drafting Olympic distance this season) who might be confused with his older brother Andreas, who was 2nd in last year's 70.3 Worlds before making the huge leap to finish 3rd at Ironman Worlds in Kona this year.
Raelert was not the only surprise in the men's race. It was expected to be a battle between Americans Tim O'Donnell, Greg Bennett, and Matt Reed, but O'Donnell got one of the few drafting penalties on the day and finished 12th. Bennett faded badly and finished outside the Top 30. Last year's winner Terenzo Bozzone didn't have enough run speed after finishing Kona a month ago and finished well back. Matt Reed did have a great race but could only hold on to 3rd. Italian Daniel Fontana was 2nd. Top Canadian was Brent McMahon, but he finished 25th place, over 10 minutes behind Raelert.
The women's race went a little more according to plan, with Julie Dibens underlining her pre-race favorite status by blowing away the field on the bike to take a 4 minute lead into T2. From there, she held on easily to win her second world title in a month (she won Xterra Worlds in October). Her finishing time of 3:59:33 was the first time a woman has broken the 4-hour barrier and left her with a 4 minute victory. Mary Beth Ellis (another ITU veteran) finished 2nd for the second year in a row. In a breakthrough performace, Canada's Magali Tisseyre finished 3rd after a race-best run 1:20:31 run split. She might be the next great Canadian Iron-threat, as she will hopefully follow Sam McGlone into the Ironman distance in the near future. Congrats Magali!
Regardless, Michael Raelert's and Julie Dibens' day were the best among a record-breaking day in Clearwater. 5 men broke the 3:40 barrier (which had never been done before), 14 men biked the 56 miles in less than 2 hours, and 25 men finished the race before 3:45 had passed. It is interesting that we are seeing more and more fast athletes coming up thru the ITU and 70.3 disciplines, and that those times are steadily improving (Brownlee's 29 minute 10K speed comes to mind) but that some of the sport's Ironman records have stood for 15 or 20 years. Mark Allen's run record at Kona has stood since 1988 and the Top 6 men's finishing times at Kona are all at least 13 years old. True, Chrissie Wellington did break the women's course record and Mirinda Carfrae the run record in 2009, but the women's bike record has stood since 1993. Will we see more records broken in the future?
Let's change gears and update you on some of the most famous male and female track athletes. Not Usain Bolt and Yelena Isinbayeva, who might be the most consistent male and female athlete, but Caster Semenya and Oscar Pistorius, both from South Africa. Semenya is famous for winning the Women's 800m at Worlds this summer, then undergoing a public blitzing about her gender identity. It was assumed that once these tests were finished, the IAAF would make some decision about her eligibility for future races, whether she could keep her medal, etc. However, her South Africa Federation announced this week that they had reached agreement with the IAAF that Semenya will keep her gold medal, regardless of the outcomes of her tests, which now will not be known until early 2010. However, there will be no official public announcement about the results of the tests will be made public, as this is will be treated as "a confidential matter between a doctor and a patient". So we might never know the full truth...
Oscar Pistorius also made headlines this week, when a study was released that shows that his carbon-fibre lower legs might make him 10 seconds faster over a 400m race. Ten seconds in a 45 second race is a lot! Anyhow, this is making news since Pistorius did win a court case (in the Court of Arbitration for Sport) in 2008 that "allows" him to compete against able-bodied athletes. This trial stated that "at the moment, not enough is known scientifically to be able to prove that Mr Pistorius obtains an advantage from the use of the prostheses. Consequently, it has cleared him to run". Does this new study change the ruling? A complicating factor is that the scientists/authors who made this "10 seconds faster" claim were actually scientific advisors that helped Pistorius win his court case in 2008. So obviously they have changed their mind, and the future of Pistorius being able to compete is going to have to be re-decided...lots more good editorial content here.
Alberto Contador and Team Astana are staying together. Today, it was announced that Alberto Contador will remain with Astana for the final year of his contract. This had been the cycling hot-stove topic for the past three months, but Contador will stay with Astana if they get their ProTour license approved for 2010. If not, Contador will be free to sign with any ProTour team (he has been linked to almost every team except for RadioShack). However, Friday is only a soft deadline, and it might take some time for all the documents to be signed. It is expected that Astana will do their part, get their license approved, and be ready to defend their Tour title in 2009. We'll see...
In other Contador news, he has signed a $1 million dollar endorsement contract with Specialized bikes for 2010. Does this mean that Astana has signed a deal to ride Specialized too? I guess we'll find out when and if their ProTour license gets approved. This article also mentions the possibility that Ivan Basso might join Contador at Astana next season as well. Interesting...
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