Australian, Canadian win Eagle Man

Australian, Canadian win Eagle Man

Australia native Luke Bell and Lori Bowden of British Columbia, Canada led the pack, winning the men's and women's portions respectively of the 13th Annual Blackwater EagleMan Triathlon Sunday.

The event drew more than 1370 participants from a field of nearly 1800 applicants. Countries represented in the 70.2-mile three-sport trek ranged from the United States and Canada as far abroad as Germany and New Zealand.

The 24-year-old Bell, who currently hails from San Diego, California, came out of the first leg of the competition, a 1.2-mile swim in the warm waters of the Choptank River a mere five seconds ahead of defending EagleMan and World Triathlon champ Tim DeBoom of Colorado. Entering the second leg, a 56-mile bicycle trek through parts of Dorchester County ranging from Cambridge to Golden Hill, he increased his lead to more than 10 minutes.

Entering the 13.1-mile run, "I ran flat out for the first 10 kilometers [6.2 miles]," said Bell. "It was really a matter of running scared. I didn't know if Tim would catch me... you can never be settled in a race like this."

"I didn't think I was going to beat him until I passed him after the turnaround," he continued. The turnaround marking the halfway point in the run was on Horn Point Road near the Cambridge Country Club. "I don't think I ran into a bad patch out there." Bell finished with a time of 3 hours, 47 minutes and 15 seconds, barely three minutes shy of the course record of 3:44:07 set last year by DeBoom.

Bell qualified to compete in the annual Ironman World Championship Triathlon in Hawaii in October. It will be his second race.

Bowden, from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is a more seasoned visitor to the Hawaii event, but this was her first trip to Cambridge for the EagleMan. The course was challenging, even for someone who's been in Ironman events over a dozen times. "The flat, pancake course here was harder than you think," she said. "When you're running in hills, you get to change the muscle groups that you put most of the stress on, but when you're running on flat ground, you use the same ones all the time."

Bowden entered the final leg of the competition a few minutes off the pace, but kicked hard to beat out a field of more than 350 other women to take the ladies' crown with a final time of 4:21:53, not quite eight minutes off the pace set by last year's female's winner, Natascha Badmann of Switzerland. Badmann did not participate in the EagleMan this year.

Top 5 Winners:

Men
Luke Bell – 3:47:15 
Tim DeBoom – 3:54:15

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Jamie Cleveland – 3:57:57
Paul Fritzsche – 4:01:09
Todd Wiley – 4:02:03

Women
Lori Bowden – 4:21:53
Lauren Jensen – 4:27:15
Fiona Docherty – 4:27:24
Lara Shaw – 4:28:58
Andrea Fisher 4:33:13

This information courtesy of David Insley, sportswriter for the Daily Banner, in Cambridge, Maryland, site of the event.