SUBIC – Nicholas Baldwin of Seychelles, Africa grabbed the lead past the middle of the bike ride, then survived the determined challenge of Kiwi Cameron Brown and the fickle, unpredictable Philippine weather to rule the 2018 Century Tuna IRONMAN Philippines at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone on Sunday.
Baldwin (with a time 8:50:13) won the first IRONMAN in his career but not before going through what seemed like a crucible to foreigners but is actually just a typical late summer day in the Philippines.
The day started with clear skies and hot weather. A cloudburst drenched the riders with heavy rain, roaring thunder and gusty winds during the bike ride only for the weather to clear before the scorching heat of the sun late in the race.
Liz Blatchford – who travelled to the Philippines with her baby Mahli and who is racing in her first IRONMAN since she gave birth – led from start to finish to win the female category of the race (with a time of 9:22:22).
Brown finished second behind Baldwin (8:56:49), while fellow Kiwi Simon Cochrane (8:58:58) took third.
Dimity Lee Duke finished second (9:40:45) behind Blatchford and was followed by Simone Maier (9:47:39) at third.
Baldwin took the lead middle of the race then had to survive the scary challenge of the veteran Brown to win the inaugural IRONMAN race in the Philippines.
The 45-year-old Brown, winner of 12 IRONMAN New Zealand races and known for outlasting other triathletes with his dogged finishing run, almost set a new world record as the oldest man to win an IRONMAN. He came from as far back as fourth place but withered in the tropical heat during the second half of the run.
Brown closed the gap up to the middle part of the run but Baldwin found his second wind when the cloud cover lifted and the sun baked the runners with blistering heat.
Cochrane was the first out of the swim followed by Blatchford and then the other males including Baldwin, Freddy Lampret, Brown, Eneko Elosegi, Jonard Saim and Benjamin Rana.
Cochrane hung on to the lead through most of the bike ride with an advantage of three minutes over Lampret who was followed by Baldwin and Brown who had eight stitches on his head after suffering an accident earlier in the week.
Lampret and Baldwin finally overtook Cochrane past the midway part of the bike run just as rain poured from the skies to cool the riders but also caused them to slow down to avoid slipping on the wet pavement.
Baldwin, Cochrane, Brown, Lampret and Eneko Elosegi were the first to transition from the bike ride to the run. Brown then overtook Cochrane and put himself five minutes behind the leading Baldwin.
Course condition turned virtually ideal for the run with a flat road ahead and with the cloud covering the blistering tropical sun. Baldwin held on to the lead with Brown just two minutes behind near the 20 kilometer mark of the run.
Brown later cut Baldwin’s advantage to just 1:20 with Cochrane already three minutes back.
Blatchford led from the outset as she came out of the water right behind men’s leader Cochrane. She then towed the women from the swim to the bike ride. She was followed by Alise Selsmark, Duke, Julia Grant and Erin Furness.
Blatchford led by almost nine minutes over Duke at the second transition from the bike ride to the run. Duke was second but had to serve time penalty for littering on the bike course.
Maier ended up at second followed by Duke, Grant and Selsmark. Duke passed Maier at the 8.8km run mark but already 14 minutes behind the women’s leader.
Blatchford led from the swim, widened her lead in the bike ride, then extended it to 15 minutes over Duke after 30 kilometers of the run.