Dave Matheson and Iona MacKenzie win Ultraman Canada
Matheson sets a new total course record.
Canada’s Dave Matheson and Iona MacKenzie won the 2013 edition of Ultraman Canada in Penticton, British Columbia.
Day one started with a 10 km swim and 144.8 km bike, and Australia’s Craig Percival kicked things off with a new swim course record swim of 2:24:28. Eclipsing the record set by Charlie Ernst (2:32:28) in 2011. Percival continued on his record setting ways. He rode 4:18:32 to complete day one with a record time of 6:43:00. Dave Matheson finished soon afterwards in 6:50:07, followed by American Christian Isakson in 7:20:55. In the women’s race, Iona MacKenzie established a 24 minute lead after day one. She led the swim (3:48:36) and ride (5:40:13) to finish in 9:28:49. Fellow Canadian’s Kathleen Wood (9:53:16) and Lucy Ryan (10:17:13) finished second and third respectively.
Day two featured a 273.5 km ride and it decided nothing between the top two men. Both Craig Percival and Dave Matheson completed the ride together in 7:53:57. However, this allowed Percival to set a two-day record time of 14:36:37! But Matheson was still only 7 minutes and 7 seconds behind. Isakson maintained his third place position (15:25:28). Meanwhile, Iona MacKenzie rode 10:11:53 to compile a two-day time of 19:40:42 and establish a 1:22:11 lead over Wood (21:02:53), and Canadian Stacey Shand (21:08:47).
On the third and final day, Matheson took control of the men’s race by being the first to complete the 84.4 km run in 7:04:13. In doing so, he set the new total course record of 21:47:47, beating the previous record held by Kevin Cutjar (21:49:45) set in 2010. American John Bergen ran 7:34:18 to claim second (23:04:23) – he won in 2011, and Percival ran 8:39:53 to finish third (23:16:20) to barely edge out Isakson by 6 seconds.
For the women, Shand ran the fastest time of 9:27:39 to put pressure on MacKenzie. But with that healthy lead, MacKenzie ran 10:34:56 to earn the overall victory in a total time of 30:15:38. Shand had to settle for second (30:36:26), and Ryan ran 10:12:10 to move up into third (31:27:23).
Get all the details at www.ultramancanada.com
More photos can be found on the Ultraman Canada Facebook Page.
