Shortis and Tajsich outlast the competition at Ironman Malaysia

Ironman Malaysia was won by two very patient champions, Jason Shortis and Sonja Tajsich, who overcame huge deficits off the bike to win in the extreme conditions.

*****

 

So how hot does it get in Langkawi during the running of Ironman Malaysia? It was so hot that even reporters were getting heat blisters on their feet … and they were just sitting around.

 

It was so hot that by 4 PM one spotter declared that the run course looked like a war zone with athletes grabbing for all the ice and water they could at each aid station.

 

Yet, observers assured me, this was a cool year. All I can say is that I’m glad I wasn’t here to witness the carnage that would have taken place if it had got hot. (The temperature was close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37 degrees Celsius, which seemed hot enough!)

 

Thanks in part to the heat, the champions from today’s seventh running of Ironman Malaysia, Jason Shortis and Sonja Tajsich, were able to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to claim the title, and their share of the US$50,000 prize purse. 

 

“Sonja who?” you might be asking, and you could be forgiven for having to ask the question. Before she married Thomas Tajsich last December, our women’s winner was known as a competent Ironman competitor by the name of Sonja Heubach. Since competing in her first Ironman in 2002, the 31-year-old German had managed a couple of third place finishes at Ironman events, but never put it all together for a win.

 

The Tajsich’s have been living here in Malaysia for nine months while Thomas works through a one year placement. Despite the fact that she finds she can’t train particularly long, or particularly hard, because of the heat here in Malaysia, Tajsich was obviously able to train enough, and get acclimatized enough, to here to win here today.

 

Tajsich was simply steadier than her competition. Rebecca Preston was on the way to blowing this race apart after a solid swim, followed by a 5:04 bike over the rolling course that was relatively wind free during the early going. Preston, though, would eventually have to stop because of an injury sustained in a bike crash a little over a week ago.

 

Once the Ironman UK champion was out of the picture, the women’s race became a close battle between Tajsich, Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Harsanyi, who was second off the bike, and Australia’s Charlotte Paul. Harsanyi held the lead for a while, but would eventually be passed by Tajsich … and it looked like both would be passed by Paul, who ran herself to within five minutes of the lead during the first half of the run.

 

In the end, though, Harsanyi and Paul would wilt in the heat, and Tajsich would put a slow, steady, marathon split of 3:27 together which more than insured the win.

 

For the fast running Jason Shortis a slow, steady, marathon takes just under three hours. Leading up to this race, if you’d told the three-time Ironman champ that running 2:57 (he was the only person to run under three hours) would get him his fourth Ironman title today, the Ironman Australia Hall of Fame member would likely have laughed at you.

 

In the end, though, he was laughing for a different reason … because the race all came together so well. After Glen Gore led out of the water with Bryan Rhodes and Chris Lieto in tow, the bike ride turned into the Chris Lieto show. Blasting to a 4:23 split, Lieto enjoyed a 13:40 lead over Rhodes and a 23-minute lead on Shortis.

 

Lieto is coming off a back injury, though, and hadn’t run for two weeks leading into the race. His lead quickly evaporated, but only one of the chasers was actually surviving the tough conditions here better than the American. That chaser was Shortis, who, believe it or not, has experienced even hotter temperatures than the ones we saw today. Having finished second here twice, Shortis knew full well that anything could happen during the marathon here, and just ran “in control” as he cruised to a dominating win.

 

Behind him Lieto was struggling to hold off Bryan Rhodes, who would eventually finish a couple of minutes behind the Ironman Canada champ for third.

 

For our complete coverage of today’s exciting race and results, click on the banner at the top of the page.

 

Ironman Langkawi, Malaysia top results:

Women:

1          SONJA  TAJSICH                      GER     10:08:13

2          ZSUZSANNA HARSANYI           HUN     10:16:24

3          CHARLOTTE  PAUL                   AUS     10:30:44

4          YUKAKO  INOUE                      JAP      10:41:53

5          CAILLA  PATTERSON                CAN     11:22:03

 

Men:

1          JASON  SHORTIS                     AUS     8:36:33

2          CHRIS  LIETO                           USA     8:50:51

3          BRYAN  RHODES                     NZL      8:52:59

4          PETR  VABROUSEK                 CZE      9:00:06

5          PETER  JACOBS                      AUS     9:04:15

 

You can contact Kevin Mackinnon at kevin@ironmanlive.com