NewsLessing, Jones Blaze Cancun
Betsy Redfern reports on Banamex Cancun Ironman 70.3 where Simon Lessing and Michellie Jones ran their way to impressive wins.
Published Monday, September 18, 2006
Michellie Jones and Simon Lessing have a lot in common. Both began their careers as short-course athletes, racing on the World Cup circuit—and racking up lots of gold—throughout the 90s. Both moved from their homelands—Australia and Great Britain, respectively—to live and train in the United States. Both shifted from short to long-course racing a few years back. Both won the title at the Cancun Ironman 70.3 and showed the world another commonality: both can run scary-fast.
Lessing's race began somewhat typically: he was second out of the water, only seconds behind Kieran Doe of New Zealand. The pair had a minute-and-change lead over Marcel Vifian, and the remainder of the field was almost a minute behind him. Lessing and Doe then rode the entire bike together, with Doe coming in to T2 just six seconds ahead of Lessing. This scenario harkens to just about any race report from a World Cup event, and perhaps took Lessing back to his own days on the circuit. Just as in draft-legal events, the tight racing can make it a runner's game, and although drafting is not legal in any Ironman event, circumstances had dictated that the fastest man on foot would win the race.
In the women’s race, instead of sharing the front with another athlete, Jones quickly shed the one athlete she exited the water with—American Marie Handel—on the bike and never looked back. Jones was off the bike several minutes before her nearest competitor, and then ran a 1:28:04 half-marathon to secure her win in 4:19:57. With the Ford Ironman World Championships less than a month away, Jones will need to use a similar strategy—bike like there's no tomorrow and run like the dickens—if she hopes to have a similar showing to her near-epic Hawaii debut last year.
Natascha Filliol of Canada, who ran the day’s fastest split for the women in 1:23:57, was second in 4:23:53, and Laura Tingle of the U.S. was third in 4:40:36. Lori-Lynn Leach and Liz Vitai were fourth and fifth, respectively. And although their names appeared on the start list and were highlighted in the pre-race write-up, Katja Schumacher was a no-show (likely recovering from her win at Ironman Wisconsin) as was fellow pro Linda Gallo.
