Wow. What a race. Casual fans of triathlon or non-converts sometimes wonder what can be exciting about a long distance 8+ hour race but it’s days like this that make you remember how great these kind of races are.

Both the men’s and womens editions produced fantastic races that ended in very close and relatively sprint finishes.

The mens race was at such a pace that the top 10 finishers broke the course record and in the ladies race the winner produced a composed and exciting finish. Unfortunately for the first year ever we had no podium Brits but that’s not to say that there weren’t some great performances to report on.

The men’s edition

The men’s edition kicked off and it was a race from the start. Fettel, Ambrose (registered as Aus but has dual-nationality with Britain) and Al-Sultan were amongst a pack that led around the course. The race was run and won predictably on the bike leg and an incredible pace was set that seemed to have destroyed most of the field. Off the bike and into the run Al-Sultan was looking strong as he set out but unfortunately for British fans Bayliss (who had been keeping in touch) and Ambrose started to fade having felt the effect of the pace. Bayliss is likely to have been feeling the effect of his injury interrupted pre-season. As the run leg progressed it became clear that Henning was catching Al-Sultan and at the final stages he beat him to claim the big prize money and huge confident boost going into the season. What a race and what a victory.

The podium looked like:

Brit performances were solid and have to be taken into account with the blistering pace. Ambrose will be disappointed with his final placing as he had told Beyond Going Long that he was targetting top-5, but his duel with Fettel was great to read and I hope they come up against each other again soon. Fraser Cartmell also did well, breaking the old course record to finish one behind Ambrose in 9th.

The full GB elite men positions were:

	Paul Ambrose	6:31:15
9)	Fraser Cartmell	6:31:53
11)	Daniel Halksworth	6:35:13
13)	Stephen Bayliss	6:41:17
16)	Bryan McCrystal	6:59:58

 The ladies edition

With no Julie Dibden racing, it was guaranteed that we would have a new winner here and I was convinced that a Brit would replace the previous Brit winner here as Joyce and Swallow seemed in good form and really up for this – however, the winner was to come elsewhere and it wasn’t Rollison (the dark horse favourite) either. Nikki Butterfield and Angela Naeth had a cracker which Butterfield won on the run. Everyone was expecting Rollison to get going on the run and catch up to announce herself as a long course athlete but she couldn’t do it. Eyes were on Joyce as well as she started to run well and there was a hope she might sneak a podium but the runners in front of her were of a high pedigree and she couldn’t catch up.

The women’s podium looked like:

The full GB elite women’s positions were: