Women's Ford Ironman World Championship preview

Women's Ford Ironman World Championship preview

While five-time Kona champ Natascha Badmann arrives in Kona as the pre-race favourite, she faces an incredibly competitive field of wily Kona veterans and relatively new contenders who will make it hard for the Swiss star to get her sixth title.

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The Ford Ironman World Championship is Natascha Badmann’s to lose. That’s what anyone who saw the “Swiss Miss” racing at Ironman South Africa earlier this year would certainly say, and based on the fact that she’s won in Kona five times, one has to give the nod to the 38-year-old from Switzerland.

After blazing through a Kona-like bike course, and split, in South Africa, Badmann declared that she still had some work to do on her nutrition for Kona – which was a scary thought since that statement alone made it obvious that Badmann fully intends to be better come October 15.

Badmann seems to have what it takes to win on the big island. She is an aerodynamic demon when it comes to the bike, and has shown that she can tough things out on the run when required to do so, too.

While Badmann appears to be at the top of her game these days, the women’s field set to line up for the Ford Ironman World Championship will hardly be waving her on to another win. This year’s field is possibly the most competitive Badmann has ever faced, with everything from Kona “newbies” to Hawaii “vets” ramping up to take her on. Even though the only other woman to have won the race since 1998, Lori Bowden, won’t be at the line this year (she just had a baby a few weeks ago!), there are more than a few athletes who will challenge Badmann for the title this year.

Heather Fuhr, the World Champion in 1997, was runner up a year ago despite the fact that she managed to stop at virtually every port-a-potty out on the run course. She won again at the Ford Ironman USA Lake Placid event earlier this year, adding to her impressive list of Ironman titles. Anyone care to bet against her? Not this writer, anyway!

Fuhr has a group of athletes who have been training with her over the last few months who might just be putting together the kind of background work required to best Badmann on the Big Island.

Included in that group is Kate Major, last year’s third place finisher, who is coming off a stress fracture from earlier this year, but will likely be a contender when it counts. Major won Ironman Arizona with that stress fracture, proving that she’s tough enough to race with the best. She was forced to skip Lake Placid in July, which means she’ll be arriving in Kona both rested, and hungry … two ingredients I think will make her one to watch.

Fuhr has also been spending a lot of training time with another Australian, Belinda Granger, who came oh-so-close to getting a win at Ironman Australia earlier this year, and put it all together in style with an impressive win at the Quelle Challenge in Roth. Granger is a run away from being an outright favourite at every Ironman she enters, including Kona.

The other Fuhr training partner we’re all wondering about is Michellie Jones. The world’s greatest short course competitor is making the move to Ironman racing, and certainly has the potential to pull off a win. She can swim with whoever wants to lead, bike with the best, and run with pretty much anyone, too. The only question to be answered when it comes to Jones is whether or not she can win the first time out in Kona. With no less an “advisor” than Paula Newby-Fraser, one has to think that Jones could also be one-to-watch.

Lisa Bentley arrives in Kona more rested than she has in years – for the first time in four years she doesn’t have Ironman Canada under her belt less than six weeks before the big dance. Bentley arrives in Kona with two Ironman wins already this year – Ironman Australia and Ironman Germany. If she can come off the bike in contention, which for her means within 10- or 15-minutes of the leaders, she is another woman who could claim the title.

Bentley will have to win during the run, but for two-time World Time Trial Champion Karin Thuerig, and winning potential is dependent on a great ride. Thuerig won in impressive style in her home country to take the Ironman Switzerland title, and will no-doubt be a factor that we’ll need to watch for on the bike. Thuerig says her goal this year is simply to finish in the top 10 so she can guarantee herself a spot at the Ford Ironman World Championship next year. Her plan is to focus a bit more on triathlon next year, and armed with a sub-60 minute swim split from Zurich, she already appears to be on track to do that. Look for Thuerig to be at or near the front off the bike … then it’ll just be a matter of how long she can hold off the faster runners coming from behind.

Thuerig isn’t the only cyclist we’ll have to watch in the race, though. Joanna Lawn won her third Ironman New Zealand title this year, and has been training hard in Boulder, Colorado for much of the year in preparation for the Ironman, and is very serious about competing well in Kona. She’s a former national team cyclist herself, swims well, and can pull off a 3:15 marathon … could this be her year?

Then there’s … well, a plethora of women who could be contenders on race day. Virginia Berasategui Luna won in Lanzarote, and learned out on the bike course last year that she can compete with the world’s best. Rebecca Preston impressed everyone at Ironman UK earlier this year. Joanna Zeiger won Ironman Brazil, has finished in the top-five in Kona, and has the speed of an Olympian.

Speaking of Olympians, the defending Olympic champion, Kate Allen, is another woman to watch come October 15. She won Ironman Austria in impressive fashion in 2003, and then did it again earlier this year. She can win long, she can win short, and she can win the big ones, too.

The bottom line? Natascha Badmann will arrive in Kona with a huge target on her back, and a whole pile of talented women who will be aiming for that target come race day!