Tisseyre second in Calgary

Oakville’s Jennifer Coombs led all women out of the water, but it was St. Sauveur’s Magali Tisseyre who finished as the first Canadian female at the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Calgary. Australia’s Mirinda Carfrae crushed the women’s field with a 4:11:05 clocking, so the real battle was for second place. Tisseyre toughed it out to hold on to second (4:21:05) ahead of Great Britain’s Catriona Morrison (4:21:30).

“I think I did good at the mental combat out there. I like to win. I wanted to win. But Mirinda was in her own world. I feel happy and proud about my battle for second,” said Tisseyre. “That will probably have helped me win a race another day by making me tougher. I am so glad I held on and took a chance when Catriona passed me, I proved to myself that I could fight back.”

Calgary’s Lisa Mensink was fourth (4:25:36), XTERRA star Danelle Kabush was seventh (4:33:26), Victoria’s Sara Gross was eighth (4:35:14), Calgary’s Rosemarie Gerspacher was ninth (4:35:46) and Toronto’s Ayesha Rollinson was tenth (4:36:23).

The men’s field also experienced a dominating performance. American Tim O’Donnell led out of the water and stayed there for the duration of the race, winning in 3:55:28. Trailing him were the USA’s Ben Hoffman (4:02:51) and New Zealand’s Jamie Whyte (4:03:58). Orillia’s Brent Poulsen was sixth (4:09:29), and Vancouver’s Michael Simpson rounded out the top ten (4:11:17).

“Calgary was an amazing course with great organizers and I am already excited to toe the line next year,” raved Poulsen. “I had a sub par swim, exiting pretty far back from the main contenders, but I managed to stay in the mix on the bike and run. I qualified for the World 70.3 Triathlon Championships in November so I can now concentrate on doing well there.”