Christian Kemp and Lesley Smith dominated the run to take the wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Austin. With a unique indoor finish, IRONMAN 70.3 Austin, set in the city nicknamed the "live music capital of the world," offers athletes a chance to visit this great tourist destination. Ranked as one of the fittest cities in the country, Austin provides a perfect landscape for swimming, cycling and running, which makes it a great venue for this popular half-distance race. Just over 2,100 athletes were on hand for the 1.2-mile swim in Decker Lake, the 56-mile bike ride that passes through rolling Texas farmland and the three-loop half-marathon run that finishes in Luedecke Arena.
Men's race
Kevin Collington (USA) led the way out of the water, but Chris Kemp (AUS) was only a second behind. American Joe Umphenour was only three-seconds behind the lead after the swim and ended up first onto the bike thanks to the quickest transition of the three leaders. Umphenour couldn't keep up with the other two, though, and was two minutes behind at the halfway point of the bike. Collington and Kemp arrived in T2 together and it was Collington who led the way out onto the half-marathon course, three seconds ahead of the Aussie. Mexican Francisco Serrano led the chase group that trailed by 4:30 which included Umphenour, Thomas Gerlach (USA), Chris Leiferman (USA) and Canadian Jeff Symonds.
Collington steadily pulled away from Kemp over the first half of the run, but could only open up a 25 second gap, which was down to 15 seconds at the halfway point. By 7.5 miles Kemp was in the lead and never looked back, cruising to the win in 3:53:35, 2:13 ahead of Collington. Serrano hung on for third, while Symonds and Umphenour rounded out the top five.
Women's race
South Africa's Jeanni Seymour finished the swim a couple of seconds ahead of American Sarah Cameto. Those two had about a 30-second lead on Lesley Smith (USA) and Poland's Ewa Komander, whild Jennifer Luebke came out of Decker Lake just under a minute behind the lead. Seymour was still in front through the halfway point of the ride, but had some company in the form of Komander, Smith and Cometo, who were all within six seconds. By the end of the ride Semour and Smith had broken free, and started the run over four minutes ahead of Luebke, Komander and Katya Meyers (USA).
Smith quickly took control of the race on the run and steadily gained time on all of her competition. By the time she reached the halfway point of the run her lead was up to a minute on Seymour and she enjoyed a 5:48 lead on Canadian Sue Huse. The order remained the same at the finish line, with Smith crossing in 4:29:46. Seymour ended up 2:47 down, while Huse managed to gain some time over the last half of the run to finish 4:07 behind in third. Cameto hung tough for fourth, while Meyers finished fifth.
Top 5 Pro Men
Christian Kemp AUS 23:46 2:12:17 1:14:58 3:53:35
Kevin Collington USA 23:46 2:12:14 1:17:12 3:55:47
Francisco Serrano MEX 24:19 2:16:28 1:13:54 3:56:57
Jeff Symonds CAN 25:29 2:14:40 1:14:08 3:57:22
Joe Umphenour USA 23:48 2:16:57 1:15:23 3:58:31
Top 5 Pro Women
Lesley Smith USA 28:22 2:32:48 1:25:18 4:29:46
Jeanni Seymour ZAF 27:50 2:33:32 1:28:22 4:32:33
Sue Huse CAN 33:01 2:33:05 1:24:20 4:33:53
Sarah Cameto USA 27:52 2:39:31 1:28:48 4:39:23
Katya Meyers USA 32:24 2:33:11 1:30:57 4:39:48