7 September 2008After a month of heavy rain and a mini-tornado narrowly missing the east end of the race course during set up, the
Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore had the weather gods on its side.
Now in its second year, the Asia’s first Ironman 70.3 (the second being
Ironman 70.3 China) had made some major course changes, most notably shifting the entire race to the island’s East Coast Park. The new venue is a long skinny park bordered four ways: between the airport and downtown, and with the sea on one side and an expressway on the other. A natural choice for a fast flat race, the East Coast is also used for local Olympic and sprint distance races.
With a pro field strongly biased towards the Southern hemisphere both the men’s and women’s race were charged with speculation as to who of the star-studded field would prevail. At the end of the day it was down to the strength and speed on the run.
Though defending champions Reinaldo Colucci and Belinda Granger of
teamTBB were hot favourites for the race, it was not to be their day. Colucci pulled out of the race with leg cramps during the first lap of the run, and though Granger recovered the lost time from fixing a flat tyre, the handful of seconds lead were not sufficient to hold off the Keats, Fitch and Ferguson who all passed her in the first few km of the run. In the end it was Thompson and Keats who pulled through, a clear victory for Keats and a hard fought race for Thompson who had Bozzone on his shoulder for the best part of the run.
The course design maximised opportunities for spectators hosting a double loop swim with brief shore exit, a three loop bike and three loop run. The swim course ran mostly parallel to shore giving the beach crowd a good view of the action. The much touted new bike route, which, for the first time in Singapore triathlon history, permitted cyclists on the expressway took competitors the length of the island and back three times to squeeze in the required 90km distance. Narrow in parts, there were a couple of pile-ups as less experienced racers wobbled through aid stations, and one of the race directors was seen acting as a human bollard at the mounting area to warn riders of a particularly challenging section. The tarmaced roads were smooth riding for the most part and it was sheer bad luck for Belinda Granger to pick up a flat on this course.
An interesting aspects of this race was the multiple wave start, which gave physically challenged and
CEO challenge athletes the kudos of starting with the pros. A nice touch. Blast off was at the top of the beach for the two lap swim course. First out of the water was, perhaps predictably Aussie Pete Jacobs who had no less than six of the top men hanging on mere seconds behind.
Its fair to say that this was tipped to be a close race, with much of the pre race chatter about whether established Ironman and 70.3 racers would be able to handle the pace of the likely quicker paced Olympians, and whether the Olympians had the endurance. With a field that included Terenzo Bozzone, who has had a string of 70.3 wins this year, relative old timers like Ironman veteran, and recent Ironman Canada champ Bryan Rhodes, and Olympian Simon Thompson, who was making his 70.3 racing debut in Singapore it was a fun gamble.
Fastest bike split of the day went to Cameron Watt who was in at 2.10. T2 was almost a bun fight as a gaggle of followers surged into the transition area two minutes later. Luke McKenzie, Pete Jacobs, Terenzo Bozzone, Simon Thompson, and Reinaldo Colucci, with Peter Robbo Robertson and Bryan Rhodes were just seconds behind and all left their wheels spinning on the racks. Seconds really counted here and the onlookers didn’t even notice Thompson change his shoes before he set out to hunt down Watt. Bozzone was hot on his heels and the two of them got to work on Watt’s advantage. Bozzone and Thompson stayed neck and neck for much of the course, having snatched the lead from Watt by the 5km mark, and it was clear that one of them had to pull strongly away at some stage otherwise it would be a finish line sprint. Thompson pulled forward in at around the 19km mark, and opened up a gap of just tens of metres, which he held onto til the finish line.
With a sterling year underway in 2008 with wins at Ironman Malaysia, Ironman China, Ironman Canada, as well as 70.3 Belgium under her belt it was fair to say that Belinda Granger was hot favourite to defend her title. However, even the best laid plans get turned upside down as Granger suffered a puncture in the mid stages of the bike races, after setting up a strong lead over Ali Fitch, Gina Ferguson and Rebekah Keat. Despite losing five minutes fixing up her bike, Granger pulled out all the stops to take back the lead before the final bike lap. Just seconds separated her from Keat and Fitch as she entered transition, despite gaining back the lost bike time, Granger said that it had affected her mentally “I shouldn’t have let it get to me, but it did. I fought hard to come back and make up the time on the bike, but going into the run was hard. I would have liked to podium at this race, but it wasn’t to be. I’m really pleased for Rebekah, and Gina had a great race too – I came fourth last time I raced against Gina, so maybe there’s something in that” Belinda joked.
Ali Fitch, second off the bike, took the lead briefly in the run, before Rebekah Keat, who had been clutching her side with a stitch during the first loop, kick to a higher gear, putting minutes into both Fitch and Granger. Fitch then dropped into third as New Zealander Gina Ferguson pulled up a place.
Singapore is a city of bling, and the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore only encouraged this. Where else to show off your fancy bikes and gear than at a race offering Ironman prize money for a half Ironman race? A worthwhile trip for the pros as though the prize money went ten deep though there were only seven women pros. Keat and Thompson each bagged $8,500 US.
Race organisers can’t rest on their laurels too long, as next year’s race will be in March 2009. Moving the Singapore race to March makes a lot of sense for the Singapore scene, there’s a lot going on in the second half of the year – the city’s marathon, as well as hosting the world’s first F1 night race are very high profile events.
The new race date gives the booming Asian race calendar a strong focus on triathlon in the early parts of next year with Ironman Malaysia, Ironman 70.3 Singapore and Ironman China and Ironman 70.3 China in consecutive months from February. Are they treading on each other’s toes? Nick Munting, Director for International Marketing of the Singapore race, doesn’t think so – “the pros can come to Singapore for the 70.3 then move onto China a month later for the full Ironman” suggests Munting.
Ultimately, the choice of races can only be a good thing: Singapore is a city race, the double whammy of Ironman China and Ironman 70.3 China (which are both held on the same day) offer a unique destination race, and Langkawi is… well Langkawi.
Asia Runner - in the thick of it - and all competitors picked up a complimentary copy of Asia Runner at the awards dinner!
