Aaron Farlow, Kirsten Moeller Win Ironman UK
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Aussie and German win men’s and women’s race respectively–both in record times.
The day started off with not even the whisper of a breeze in the air. There was an army of local pros looking to take the title, but for the first time here in Bolton the winners came from overseas and from under the radar.
Deciding on a late entry, Aaron Farlow suffered a car accident back in November last year. The teamTBB athlete worked himself back into racing and believes the tough training regime under coach Brett Sutton prepared him well for the battle ground today here in Bolton.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Australian, though. Coming out of the swim after following bubbles around for 2.4 miles due to some very foggy goggles, it wasn’t until 175 km into the bike that Farlow was able to go into the lead. He finished with a 2:41:45 run to win in 8:24:33.
In the ladies race it was a similar case of chasing the carrot. Diana Reisler, another aspiring athlete from the Sutton school of hard knocks, was out of the water and onto the bike course pulling away from the rest of the field.
Reisler was looking to make amends for having to DNF in Frankfurt last week. But there were two other athletes looking to make amends for a Frankfurt DNF, too. One of those was American Desiree Ficker, who was up there and fighting away, but pulled out on the bike. The other low flying missile was the 2009 German duathlon champion, Kristin Moeller. From sixth place onto the bike, she started the run in third place. With her father in support out on the run course firing off splits, Moeller started to taste victory. She won in a course-record 9:19:04.
“First of all I saw Yvette (2010 Champion, Yvette Grice) about 500 meters in front. I overtook her and then I was 13-mintues down from Diana.”
Read more: Ironman.com