Vanhoenacker and Niederfriniger win in Austria

Vanhoenacker dominates the day while Niederfriniger runs to the women's title

Marino Vanhoenacker defended his Karnten Ironman Austria title in brilliant fashion today, following up a strong swim with an incredible bike that left him well ahead of his competition. After charging out of T2 with hopes of a sub-eight hour performance, Vanhoenacker faded a bit over the last half of the run, but still managed an impressive 8:06:41.

Edith Niederfriniger had much more competition than her male counterpart - the Italian managed to move one place further up the podium than she has the two times she raced Austria's Kate Allen here to win her second Ironman title by running past Austria's Veronika Hauke over the last 10km of the marathon.

About 2,200 athletes were on hand here in Klagenfurt to enjoy the avid support of more than 100,000 spectators. All day long the weather reports were calling for thunderstorms and rain, but rather than cool rain the athletes got warm sun.

That good weather spurred on some fast bike splits, led by Vanhoenacker’s quick 4:21:13 over the deceptively hilly two-loop bike course, which put him more than 12 minutes ahead of his competition starting the marathon. The only man who posted a bike split close to the Belgian’s was former pro cyclist Kai Hundertmarck, who moved from 117^th after the swim to second by the end of the ride.

Vanhoenacker made a gallant attempt to break the eight-hour mark here, running a 2:45 marathon pace for the first 25km of the run. He then found himself in trouble, and slowed dramatically for about five kilometers before regrouping and cruising to the finish line.

Austria’s Norbert Langbrandtner ran his way to the runner up spot, while Germany’s Max Longree had the fastest marathon split (2:43:50) of the day and ran his way to third, just seconds behind Langrandtner.

Hundertmarck would hang on for fourth and Austria’s Alexander Fruhwirth rounded out the top five.

Despite her two runner-up finishes here, Niederfriniger wasn’t the favorite coming into today’s race. Last year’s defending champion, Rebecca Preston, didn’t even fill that role, despite the fact that she was aiming to repeat her impressive double from a year ago when she won both Ironman Switzerland and this race two weeks later. Most of the pre-race winner predictions had last year’s Kona runner-up, Desiree Ficker, as the most likely woman to cross the line first.

Preston appeared to be following the same race plan that got her the win here last year – ride clear of the rest of the women and hang on for the run – but faded halfway through the first loop, in part thanks to a mechanical issue that had her brakes rubbing against her wheels.

Preston got that problem fixed, but quickly found herself losing time to both Ficker and Austrian Lisa Hutthaler. Preston eventually managed to pass Ficker before T2, and got an added time bonus over the American thanks to a drafting penalty that left Ficker in T2 for an extra six minutes.

Hutthaler would fade over the first half of the run, which quickly became a duel between Preston, Austria’s Veronika Hauke and Niederfriniger, who had made up some time on the women ahead of her over the second lap of the bike and continued to steadily gain time on the run.

Hauke got to the front and appeared to be on track to hold off the Italian but, as she did in the Austrian’s first Ironman appearance here in Klagenfurt, Niederfriniger took the lead during the last 10km of the run and never looked back.

The Austrian stayed tough right to the line, though, finishing just 46 seconds behind. Third went to Preston, who was quite happy with her 9:15:55 performance. Fourth and fifth turned into a battle between a pair of Canadians, one which Calgary’s Sara Gross won, getting to the line ahead of Toronto’s Tara Norton. Hillary Biscay ran her way to sixth, while Ficker struggled, but did get to the line, in seventh.

You can check out our full day of coverage by clicking on the coverage tab on the Ironman Austria web page.