Athletes push hard at Mandurah Ironman

Mandurah was awash with visitors on Sunday as athletes came out to compete in the SunSmart IRONMAN 70.3 event.

Billed as one of the best fields ever assembled across the IRONMAN 70.3 distance - outside the world championships - the event lived up to the hype with more than 1500 professionals and age group athletes chasing their personal best.

German Michael Raelert spent much of the day on sub-world record pace to take out the men's race, while Australia's Annabel Luxford dedicated the win to friend and mentor Australian triathlon legend Jackie Fairweather, who passed away last week.

Luxford went one better than her second-place finish last year, taking the win from Caroline Steffen, of Switzerland, and Australia's Nikki Butterfield.

In the men's race, the top 10 men, led by Raelert, exited the water within 20 seconds of each other.

Concerned about the quality of runners in the field, Australia's Tim Reed put the hammer down in the first 50km of the bike.

His plan was to go hard and see who was left, and by the end of the 90km bike it was Kemp, Luke Bell and Raelert.

Bell and Kemp could not match the speed of Raelert and Reed with the German slowly starting to extend his lead until he had a comfortable cushion, winning by just under three minutes.

In the women's, Luxford led out of the water by 10 seconds over a group including pre-race favourites Steffen and Rachel Joyce, of Great Britain.

It was all about the bike for German Anja Beranek, who tried to take the sting out of the legs of the faster runners in the field by pushing as hard as possible while on two wheels, finishing the 90km bike leg with a 2hr 18min. advantage over Luxford.

Beranek held onto the lead until Luxford took over top spot within 7km of the finish.

Steffen and Butterfield took the remaining two spots on the podium, relegating Beranek to fourth.

For full results, visit www.ironmanmandurah.com .

• WINNERS *

• Men *

·Michael Raelert (GER) 3:35:55

·Tim Reed (AUS) 3:38:42

·Christian Kemp (AUS) 3:39:48

·Luke Bell (AUS) 3:43:49

·Ruedi Wild (SUI) 3:47:26

• Women *

·Annabel Luxford (AUS) 4:02:20

·Caroline Steffen (SUI) 4:03:08

·Nikki Butterfield (AUS) 4:03:49

·Anja Beranek (GER) 4:04:24

·Rachel Joyce (GBR) 4:08:41