Reid, Bowden win Ironman World Championships in Kona

Ron Staton
Associated Press

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) -- Peter Reid of Canada made a strong marathon run and won the 25th anniversary Ironman Triathlon World Championship.

The 34-year-old professional triathlete from Victoria finished the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.2-mile run in 8 hours, 22 minutes and 34 seconds on Saturday. It was his third Hawaii Ironman victory after winning in 1998 and 2000.

"I really, really hurt," Reid said after crossing the finish line. "I trained hard, saved my year for this race and it paid off."

Rutger Beke of Belgium was second in 8:28:26, and Cameron Brown of New Zealand third in 8:30:07.

Reid took the lead just before the 10-mile mark of the run, passing Normann Stadler of Germany, who was first to finish the bike ride and had a 4-minute, 15-second lead going into the run.

Defending champion Tim DeBoom was second going into the run but dropped out of the race at the 12-mile mark due to dehydration.

Lori Bowden of Canada, the 1999 champion who holds the women's course marathon record, made another strong marathon run and won the women's race. Her time was 9:11:55.

Bowden, who is Reid's estranged wife, passed Nina Kraft of Germany midway through the run after Kraft had regained the lead.

Kraft was the first woman to finish the bike ride, but three-time defending champion Natasha Badmann was first to start the run because Kraft had to serve a three-minute penalty.

Light winds helped the athletes on the bicycle course, but they faced humid conditions for the run.

Jan Sibbersen, a former Olympic swimmer from Germany, was the first to finish the ocean swim in Kailua Bay with a time of 46 minutes, 50 seconds, just six seconds off the 1995 record pace of 46:44. He quickly fell behind in the bike ride.

Athletes from 42 states and 42 countries and from ages 18 to 80 were registered, including Gordon Haller, winner of the first Ironman race in 1978, and two of the other 11 finishers.

Following the swim from the pier in this resort town on Hawaii Island's Kona Coast, the 1,647 competitors biked through barren lava fields and rolling ranchlands to the turn around at the village of Hawi at the northeast tip of the island.

The bicycle phase ended and the run began at the same swim-bicycle transition in the parking lot of a hotel adjacent to the pier.

Most of the sport's top professionals were vying for $430,000 in prize money and performance bonuses. The first male and female each got $100,000.

The field included the winners of Ironman races at other locations earlier this year.

Also competing were Luc Van Lierde of Belgium, who set the course record of 8:04;08 in 1996 (he dropped out of Saturday's race after the swim) and multiple-Ironman World Champion Paula Newby-Fraser, of Encinitas, California, who established the women's record of 8:55:28 in 1992. She finished in 9:51:40 on Saturday.

Check out Ironmanlive.com for full coverage of the Ironman World Championship.