Victor Del Corral made it two in a row while Julia Gajer took her first IRONMAN title at IRONMAN Arizona.
by Kevin Mackinnon
Fans at IRONMAN Arizona have seen their share of close and exciting races over the years—the 10th anniversary was no exception as Spain’s Victor Del Corral and Germany’s Julia Gajer ran their way to the wins, passing the American favorites along the way.
Del Corral makes it two in a row
Two weeks ago Victor Del Corral ran an incredible 2:37 marathon to catch Andrew Starykowicz in the closing miles of the run to take IRONMAN Florida in record time. In Tempe today, the Spaniard was in control of the race by the halfway point of the marathon.
The day looked to be much more competitive early on, though. A group of 11 men stayed together through the swim, coming out of the water over four minutes ahead of pre-race favorite Jordan Rapp. The group was over five minutes ahead of two other contenders: IRONMAN Canada champ Trevor Wurtele and Del Corral. In that lead group were lots of names we’re used to seeing on short-course podiums, including Kiwi/American Matt Reed, IRONMAN 70.3 European champ Ritchie Nicholls (GBR) and America’s second-ranked ITU athlete in 2012, Matt Chrabot.
Once on the bike the race quickly became the Jordan Rapp show. By the halfway point the American had blown by the lead group, riding a course-record 4:14 split to come off the bike 2:26 ahead of IRONMAN Sweden-Kalmar champ, Pedro Gomes, and 6:18 ahead of Wurtele. The real challenge, though, was the fact that Del Corral was only 6:31 behind in fourth.
Rapp started the run looking like he was in control, averaging just over 6:30 minutes per mile. There was only one problem—Del Corral ran through the opening miles at a pace even faster than he did two weeks ago in Florida (1:18:21 for the first 13.1 miles). By the halfway point of the run Del Corral’s six-plus minute deficit had turned into a 47-second advantage. The Spaniard would slow over the closing miles of the race (if you can call a 2:43 marathon “slowing”), but was untouchable and took the title in 8:02:00. Rapp finished with a solid 8:06:13, while Denmark’s Jens Petersen-Bach rounded out the podium.
Gajer gets her first win
There were a lot of reasons that Meredith Kessler rolled into Tempe as the women’s race favorite. While her seventh-place finish in Kona last month was her best finish at the IRONMAN World Championship, many had picked Kessler to finish even higher there this year. Over the past three years Kessler (who has competed at all 10 IRONMAN Arizona events) has steadily moved down the results board here in Arizona. In 2010 she was fourth. In 2011 she was third. Last year she finished second. It seemed logical that this year would be her chance to finally get the win she coveted.
Kessler seemed to be on track for a wire-to-wire win from the minute the gun went off for the pro women at 6:50 (five minutes after the pro men). Kessler managed to pull away from the entire women’s field, including Amanda Stevens, who set the fastest women’s IRONMAN swim time in Frankfurt last year.
On the bike Kessler continued to dominate. Denmark’s Michelle Vesterby got to within a few seconds of the American during parts of the ride, but Kessler managed to stay clear by just under a minute heading into T2, despite Vesterby’s course-record 4:43:00 bike split.
Behind those two, Gajer came off the bike thrilled to hear that she was “only” 10 minutes behind. Despite three podium finishes at full-distance races in Europe, Gajer hadn’t ever made it to the top of the podium over this distance and started the marathon confident that she might be able to get her first win. Kessler started the run off well, running a three-hour pace through the early miles of the marathon. But it wasn’t enough. As the American slowed, Gajer picked up her pace. By 23 miles the German was in front. Her 3:02 marathon split was enough to ensure a three-minute win at the finish line, which she reached in an impressive 8:52:49. Kessler’s 3:16 marathon split wasn’t enough to get the win, but was enough to get her another runner-up finish here in Tempe ahead of Vesterby.
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Top 5 Men
| 1 | Victor Del Corral | ESP | 8:02:00 |
| 2 | Jordan Rapp | USA | 8:06:13 |
| 3 | Jens Petersen-Bach | DNK | 8:07:53 |
| 4 | Denis Chevrot | FRA | 8:09:04 |
| 5 | Pedro Gomes | PRT | 8:11:42 |
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Top 5 Women
| 1 | Julia Gajer | DEU | 8:52:49 |
| 2 | Meredith Kessler | USA | 8:55:47 |
| 3 | Michelle Vesterby | DNK | 8:57:24 |
| 4 | Sarah Piampiano | USA | 9:05:57 |
| 5 | Asa Lundstrom | SWE | 9:12:20 |
Originally from: http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/news/articles/2013/11/del-corral-and-gajer-awesome-in-arizona.aspx#ixzz2l33ypa24
