NIXON
IMPRESSIVE ONCE AGAIN IN “IRON APE” ½ IRON WIN AT METRO ZOO
By
TJ Cesarz
It
wasn’t the typical, “Chamber of Commerce,” sunny Florida day, but in a way, the
weather that greeted the hundreds of athletes who descended upon Miami’s Metro
Zoo for the Iron Ape ½ Ironman and Iron Monkey International Distance races
proved perfect.
Cooler
temperatures and overcast skies provided welcome relief to the triathletes who
were faced with daunting tasks no matter how you looked at it.
Those competing in the ½ Ironman were looking at 70.4 miles of intense
exercise before getting to the finish line, while International racers were
faced with almost 32 miles of swimming, biking and running before their day was
through.
Here’s a look at
how things went at the June 5th Iron Ape ½ Ironman Tri.
MALE OVERALL
Coconut Creek’s
Richard Nixon continued his age group dominance of longer events in
South Florida.
The 40-year old was dominant at Metro Zoo, taking the overall title in
4:33:14. His time was more than 16
minutes better than 2nd place finisher Ian Darrah, (Coconut Creek),
who took the overall silver in 4:49:35.
3rd overall was
Miami
’s Pedro Guevara, who
finished in 4:56:26. Nixon put the
race away on the bike, where he cruised to a 56-mile split of 2:15:29.
Congrats to Richard – we wish him the best of luck through the rest of
the season, and look forward to seeing him excel!
FEMALE
OVERALL
In a much closer
overall contest, Lisa Frink, (
Ft.
Lauderdale
), came out of the
water down more than 8 minutes to Lorrie Beck, (
Cherry Hill
,
NJ
), but made up the
time on the bike and had enough on the run to take the lady’s overall title in
the time of
5:14:03.
Beck was less than 2 minutes behind, taking 2nd in 5:16:20,
while
Miami
’s Maria Carstens was
3rd in 5:31:35.
MALE MASTERS
OVERALL
Jeff Heisler, (
Tampa
), took top honors
here, finishing in 5:00:35. Taking
the second podium step was
Hialeah
’s Dirk Smeets who
clocked a 5:05:55. Anthony Wood,
(Jupiter), earned the divisional bronze, crossing the finish in a very
respectable 5:21:41.
FEMALE
MASTERS OVERALL
It came down to
the run, but
Orlando’s
Debbie Darr had just enough to hold off Maria Price, (
Pompano Beach
), allowing her to
take a 7 second win, 5:41:36 – 5:41:43.
Sue Fleschman of
St. Petersburg
rounded out the top
three, taking 3rd in 6:10:25.
FEMALE
DUATHLON – 1MILE RUN/56 MILE BIKE/13.1 MILE RUN
Stephanie
Balint, (
Miami
), dominated from
start to finish, taking the ladies du title with a time of 4:39:53.
Fellow Miamian Ana Cristina Acosta-Figueredo was 2nd in
7:12:09.
MALE
DUATHLON - 1MILE RUN/56 MILE BIKE/13.1 MILE RUN
53-year old
Christian Poirier, (
N. Miami),
showed he could run with the “less experienced” athletes!
He took the du championship in a time of 5:39:46.
Finishing 2nd was Luigi Figueredo, (
Miami
), who finished in
5:50:54.
MALE
AQUABIKE – 1.2 MILE SWIM/56 MILE BIKE
In the men’s
aquabike race, Willy van Gent, (
Pompano Beach
), was almost 40
minutes faster than the rest of the field, taking the win in 3:09:49.
His bike split of 2:28:40 was almost 30 minutes better than the rest of
the field. Jaime Raich, (
Miami Beach),
was 2nd in 3:45:43, while
Orlando
’s Dave Tattergall
took the bronze, finishing in 3:49:18.
FEMALE
AQUABIKE – 1.2 MILE SWIM/56 MILE BIKE
Nicole Swift,
(Coconut Creek), had an impressive win, clocking a time of 3:29:58, good enough
to best the rest of the division by almost 10 minutes.
Kelle Burke, (Coral Springs), was 2nd in 3:39:22, and Trina
Williams, (Boca Raton), was 3rd in 4:39:36.
CLYDESDALE
185-199, 39 & UNDER
Frank Collada, (
Miami
), ran unopposed,
cruising to the win in 6:20:16
CLYDESDALE
200+, 39 & UNDER
Greg Mitchell, (
Ft.
Myers
), had a dominating
performance, cruising to a 10+ minute win over the rest of the field in
6:00:46. Francisco Lopez,
(Deltona), was 2nd in 6:11:56, while Matt Quance of Seminole took 3rd
in 6:48:19.
CLYDESDALE
200+, 40 & OVER
Ronald Mers of
Pinecrest raced to the uncontested divisional win in 7:09:42.
ATHENA
Top South
Florida Chiara Manton, (
Miami
), had another
impressive race, taking the victory in 7:46:11.
FEMALE 20-24
Cristine
Victoria,
(
Boynton Beach
), took the win in
5:58:39.
Boca Raton
’s Jennifer Hoctor was
2nd.
MALE 20-24
Michael
Quinones, (
Pembroke Pines
), took the divisional
win with a time of 6:07:54. Gavin
Nicholls, (Wilton Manors), was 2nd in 6:19:41 and Elton Aguilera of
Pinecrest took 3rd in 7:26:44.
FEMALE 25-29
Marcie Herzog
came all the way from
Phoenix
,
AZ
to have an
impressive race and take the win. Her
time of 5:58:44 was 17 minutes better than Manuela Picq, (
Miami
) who was 2nd
in 6:15:26.
MALE 25-29
The top 3 in the
men’s 25-29’s all finished in under 5:35.
The trio was led by John Scott, (
Miami Beach
), who took the top
podium step with a time of 5:28:49.
Taking 2nd was
St. Augustine
’s Matt Geren, who
clocked a 5:32:01.
Tampa
’s Phillip Newman was
3rd in 5:33:57.
FEMALE 30-34
Miami
’s Jalaine Sanchez
took top honors, winning in a time of 6:44:34.
Orlando
athletes went 2nd
& 3rd, with Bev Currin taking silver in 6:58:20 and fellow
hometowner Julie Scott taking the bronze in 7:24:43.
MALE 30-34
Philip Morone, (
Delray Beach
), was the man, taking
the win in 5:03:11. The silver
went to
Miami
’s Franz Carstens who
clocked an impressive 5:09:17. Taking
3rd was Gustavo Cadena, (
Coral Gables
), who finished in
5:52:28.
FEMALE 35-39
Kristine Cox, (
St.
Pete), was your winner, besting the field by almost an hour in 5:57:55!
Candace Pulliam, (Winter Garden), was 2nd in 6:51:52, while
Susana Austrich, (Key Biscayne), was 3rd in 6:58:14.
MALE 35-39
John Macedo of
Clearwater
had an impressive 4th
place OVERALL finish, taking the 35-39 win in 4:58:44.
Grant Jolley, (
Dania
Beach
), was 2nd
in 5:04:12 and Marcelo Figueireo was 3rd in 5:07-flat.
FEMALE 40-44
The always tough
Sonya Houseman, (WPB), took the win here with a time of 6:23:39.
Nancy Stuparich, (
Miami Beach
), was 2nd in
6:24:22. Leslie Ginocchio, (
Lake Worth
), was 3rd in
6:34:21.
MALE 40-44
Robert
Ferneding, (Dania), was the winner in this very competitive age group with a
time of 5:31:17. Peter Weiler, (
Palm
City),
was 2nd in 5:38:49, and David Bigio, (
Miami
), earned the final
podium spot, taking 3rd in 6:09:01.
MALE 45-49
Weston’s Blaz
Jurko was the gold medal winner, clocking a time of 5:42:15, just one second
ahead of 2nd place finisher Renato Fornoni.
Paul Kvedaras, (
Miami
), was 3rd,
finishing in 5:52:30.
FEMALE 50-54
Laura Bender,
(Coconut Creek), raced uncontested to the win in 6:51:10.
MALE 50-54
Mark Homewood of
Palm
City
earned the win at
the “Ape,” finishing in an impressive 5:53:03.
Taking 2nd was Emilio Adatto, (
Miami Beach
), who finished in
6:07:46. The bronze medal winner
was
Miami
’s Tim Weller,
clocking a 6:44:55.
MALE 55-59
Jim Loretta, (
Miami
), took top honors
with a time of 6:33:29. Good buddy
Greg Kaputa, (
Tampa
), was a solid 2nd
in 7:01:57.
FEMALE 60-64
Continuing her
prep for The Ironman Championships, Babette Kulka, (
Hallandale
), had a quality
training race, finishing in 8:23:04.
MALE 60-64
Hollywood
’s Arnie Lefkowitz
raced to the win uncontested in a time of 6:25:43.