Chrissie Wellington rules in Hawaii
Photo by: Bakke-Svensson/Ironman

Britain's iron woman - Chrissie Wellington - scored a third consecutive Ironman World Championship win at Kona, breaking the course record which had been held since 1992 by Paula Newby-Fraser, with a time of 08:54:02.

Such was the expectation of Wellington's victory, even her record breaking time, that when, for a short period, she stopped taking great chunks out of the leading men (yes, men), commentators at the event started speculating about her condition. In fact, she was simply battling the energy sapping head winds on the bike course & as she headed out onto the run route, it was clear that this lady was on form & on fire!

Wellington came home 22nd, out of BOTH male & female competitors, with many male athletes desperately trying to avoid being "chicked". She led home second placed woman Mirinda Carfrae by nearly 20 minutes but Cafrae took her own small victory in beating Wellington's 2008 run course record. Virginia Berasategui took third place.

In the men's competition, reigning champion Craig Alexander took victory from Chris Lieto who put in an impressive performance during the bike leg & who led for much of the run as well. But when Alexander put the hammer down, the pace was too much for Lieto who held on for second, with Andreas Raelert taking third.