Melanie McQuaid takes her third 70.3 win of year in Ballarat
Like her training partner Brent McMahon did in Arizona, Victoria’s Melanie McQuaid demolished the field at Ironman 70.3 Ballarat in Australia on Sunday. Forced to skip Ironman 70.3 Mandurah in western Australia last week with the flu, McQuaid was in top form on Sunday finishing in 4:19:40, almost eight minutes clear of second place, Australia’s Madelene Oldfield. McQuaid had the second fastest swim of the day and used her cycling prowess to blast to the front with a bike split that was six minutes faster than anyone else. She followed that with a 1:25 half marathon, the second fastest of the day to break the tape first. Dutch athlete Mareen Hufe was third in 4:29:47.
One of the best parts of racing in Australia- having the legendary @DellyPhotoNinja capturing the moments #beauty pic.twitter.com/ejNwonIHqe
— Melanie McQuaid (@racergirlmel) November 17, 2014
On the men’s side, Michael Raelert won in 3:48:33 but it was a race for second with Australia’s Jamie Huggett and Luke Bell finishing just one second apart in 3:57:33 and 3:57:34 respectively.
