Potts Dominates, Donavan Takes Women's Title At Lake Placid

Published July 22, 2012 04:35PM

American Andy Potts turned in an impressive performance at today’s Ironman Lake Placid triathlon, posting the fastest swim, bike and run splits to take the overall victory and likely punch his ticket to Kona.

Potts kicked the day off with a stellar swim, exiting the water in a time of 45:01. Australian Pete Jacobs, who often keeps pace with Potts on the swim, headed into T1 two minutes back and in second position. The third athlete out of the water was France’s Romain Guillaum at 50:00.

Once on the bike, Potts continued to push the pace and managed to build on his lead throughout the entire 112-mile bike section. By the time bike turned to run, Potts’ lead stood at nearly 10 minutes, with Guillaum as the closest pursuer.

Despite the large lead, Potts never let up and he built a gap of more than 20 minutes over Jacobs, who had run his way up to second, by the midway point of the run.

Potts combined a 45:01 swim, a 4:42:33 bike and a 2:52:48 run to take the 8:25:00 win. Jacobs was forced to walk in the late miles of the race, but still managed to earn second in 8:56:42. Guillaum rounded out the podium in third.

Potts and Jacobs likely had different goals heading into this race. Potts needed every possible point toward Kona qualification, while Jacobs simply needed an Ironman finish to validate his Ironman World Championship spot. With the victory, Potts will add 1000 points to his current Kona Pro Ranking total and will likely earn one of the last July qualifying spots.

With a group of relative unknowns making up the women’s pro field there was no clear favorite heading into the race. American Suzanne Serpico led the women’s field into T1 with a swim time of 53:50 with Suzanne Zelazo of Canada following only three seconds later. The two Suzannes worked to hold the lead and continued to carry the top spots at the midway point of the bike. The standout on the bike proved to be American Jessie Donavan. After struggling on the swim, Donavan hammered the bike leg and found the top spot by T2.

Donavan combined a 1:09:00 swim, a 5:19:40 bike and a 3:13:32 marathon to take the 9:47:32 win. American Jennie Hansen posted the fastest run of the pro women to finish second. Another American, Jacqui Gordon, finished third.

Ironman Lake Placid
Lake Placid, NY – July 22, 2012
2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run

Men
1. Andy Potts (USA) 8:25:00
2. Pete Jacobs (AUS) 8:56:42
3. Romain Guillaum (FRA) 9:08:50
4. Matthew Russell (USA) 9:16:36
5. Douglas MacLean (USA) 9:33:18

Women
1. Jessie Donavan (USA) 9:47:32
2. Jennie Hansen (USA) 9:56:33
3. Jacqui Gordon (USA) 10:08:21
4. Suzanne Serpico (USA) 10:14:15
5. Kelly Fillnow (USA) 10:19:42