Australian Shortis on target for Hawaii

Gold Coast Ironman specialist Jason Shortis stamped his mark on the Cannibal Half Ironman with a convincing 3 minute 20 second victory. The win confirms to Shortis that he is on target for the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kona on October 18.

"I feel like I am in the best shape of my career at the moment. Training has been excellent and the race today has given me a lot of confidence for Hawaii in a fortnight's time," said Shortis after the race.

After coming out of the water in 17th place, Shortis, on his way to producing one of the fastest bike rides of the day, caught the swim leader, Peter Jacobs before a small group of 4 athletes containing Shortis, Nick Saunders, local athlete Tim Mackiewicz and David Dellow powered away from the rest of the field. The four would ride the majority of the 90-kilometre ride together with Shortis and Mackiewicz making a small break towards the end of the ride. Former Australian Road cycling champion Steve Williams came into transition in 5th place, three minutes down on the leaders.

The Gold Coast's Rebekah Keat produced a dominating performance taking victory by 8 minutes over fellow local Nikki Egyed. After a strong swim that saw Keat exit the water in first place ahead of Nicole Rudan and Kim Wilson, Keat had a minor scare as Sydney's Marissa Robbins produced a dominating bike ride that took her to the lead. The undulating course that surrounds the Coomera Waters area seemed perfect for Robbins who increased her lead at every turn-around, coming into the second transition down the infamous "Thunder Alley" with a lead of 3 minutes over Keat.

In the men's race Shortis left transition for the run in first place and was never headed. Running a controlled race Shortis held off the challenge of young Mackiewicz who retired from the race early into the run due to injury. This left Nick Saunders to try and make up ground on the 10-time Ironman Australia finisher but in the end it was a comfortable victory for Shortis. The run leg produced major changes to the final standings with Chilean Matias Optiz producing the fastest run of the day to move him into 3rd position overall. Darren Franken had the second fastest run which gave him 4th place, with Sydney's Malcolm Lyon taking 5th place.

With a 3-minute buffer over Keat, Robbins began the 21.1km run hoping to hold onto her lead but the tough Gold Coaster was not ready to lie down just yet. Producing the second fastest run was enough for Keat to gain the lead and move to an 8-minute victory. Egyed and Rudan both had solid races to place 2nd and 3rd respectively, but it was the consistency in all three legs that saw Keat gain victory, her second in the Road to Ironman Australia Qualifying Series. Robbins would hold onto 4th place, followed by Kim Wilson in 5th place.