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Canadians Sweep Home Field

page created by shane — last modified 2006-09-07 06:37 PM

It was a Canadian sweep in Penticton...

By Press Release

It was a Canadian sweep in Penticton, as Tom Evans and Lisa Bentley won Ironman Canada.

Evans took the lead early on in the swim and never relinquished it. The Penticton athlete exited the water in the lead in 46:43. Incredibly, third out of the water was Joanna Zeiger with a 47:36 swim - a new women's course record.

As the race progressed Evans's lead began to grow. Olaf Sabatschus held onto second place, and Stefan Holzner was in third until he eventually faded due to a tooth infection. Entering T2, it was Matt Seeley who caught up to Sabatschus and started the run in third place, with Gordo Byrn in fourth.

The marathon proved more of a problem for Evans as Byrn made up six minutes in the first 12 miles of the run and continued to pull back time, cutting Evans's lead to 2:15 at the 20-mile mark. However, Evans held on for the win in a time of 8:28:06, claiming his first Ironman victory by just over a minute. Byrn, finishing with a 2:46:09 marathon, took second while Sabatschus claimed third.

Women's leader Zeiger had led for much of the ride before Canada's Gillian Bakker passed her late on the bike ride entering T2 first, completing a 5:03:57 bike split and heading out onto the marathon in first place. Zeiger kept her second placing, starting the run about five minutes behind. Bentley came in 9:35 down. At the 12-mile mark, Zeiger had cut Bakker's lead to 3:09 and Bentley was only 4:50 back. Bentley, the defending champion and one of the sport's fastest runners, passed Zeiger and then Bakker, grabbing the lead at the halfway point and running away with the win in 9:16:02, a full 12 minutes clear of Zeiger and 20 minutes ahead of Bakker.