New Zealand's Terenzo Bozzone and Canada's Samantha McGlone both used outstanding half marathons to pull of their victories here in Galveston at the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 (half Ironman) Texas.
While, they both kidded yesterday about acquiring American status (Bozzone joked about marrying an American, and McGlone wondered whether her green card counted), so they could pick up the extra $5,000 bonus for the top American finisher, that payday went to a pair of Colorado natives – Timothy O'Donnell and Amanda Stevens.
As expected, Colorado's Andy Potts, who won Ironman 70.3 New Orleans last weekend, led out of the water (25:24), but just one second behind was New York's David Kahn. It was only a matter of time, though, before they would be caught by some the best cyclists in the field.
By mile 15, Chris Lieto assumed the race lead, closely followed by Philip Graves, Terenzo Bozzone, Timothy O'Donnell and TJ Tollakson. This core group would remain intact (within four minutes of each other) for the remainder of the ride, with Lieto pulling off the top bike split of the day (2:04:53), taking a 2:34 lead onto the run.
In between mile 11 and 12 of the half marathon, Bozzone took the lead from Lieto for good and soon after O'Donnell would also pass Lieto – the three remained in the same order through the finish line, with Bozzone in first (3:49:06), O'Donnell in second (3:49:35) and Lieto in third (3:50:35).
For Bozzone the victory comes just a week after finishing second in the New Orleans 70.3 behind Andy Potts and confirms his status as one of the premier half Ironman competitors in the world today.
In the women's race, Colorado's Amanda Stevens had an incredible day. She was first out of the water (27:48), led the bike the entire way (2:23:22 – Karin Thuerig had the top split of 2:14:55), but was unable to hold off Samantha McGlone.
McGlone finally pulled alongside Stevens at mile five of the run and, by mile seven, had assumed a 13-second lead that would never be surrendered, stopping the clock at 4:17:22. Stevens held on to second (4:18:26) and Austin's Kelly Williamson ran her way into third (4:19:02) with the top half-marathon split of the day (1:18:18).
Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3, Texas
Top Ten Pro Men
1. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 3:49:06
2. Timothy O'Donnell (USA) 3:49:35
3. Chris Lieto (USA) 3:50:35
4. Andy Potts (USA) 3:52:01
5. Tyler Butterfield (USA) 3:53:25
6. Paul Amey (GBR) 3:54:07
7. TJ Tollakson (USA) 3:57:06
8. Philip Graves (GBR) 3:58:26
9. Jeff Symonds (CAN) 3:58:56
10. Stephen Kilshaw (CAN) 4:06:08
For further information, visit www.ironman.com.
