Jarrod Osborne and Ellie Salthouse have won the men’s and women’s professional titles at the 2024 Qatar Airways IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne, with both athletes impressing on the run to clear ahead of their competition and take the wins.
For Osborne it was a maiden IRONMAN 70.3 professional win, taking the tape in a new course best time of 3:35:21, while Salthouse made it two victories in Melbourne in three years, crossing the line in 4:03:30.
Canberra’s Osborne finished ahead of Jake Birtwhistle, with Nicholas Free rounding out the podium.
Osborne came out of the water in 13th, almost a minute and a half behind South Africa’s Olympic representative Jamie Riddle. Riddle pushed ahead on the bike, riding the entire 90km by himself, with a big pack hot on his heels.
Riddle was first out onto the 21.1km run but unfortunately retired soon after with an injury. From there Osborne and Birtwhistle hit the front, pushing each other up and down the waterfront course before Osborne kicked ahead to take a maiden victory.
“It’s pretty amazing, I definitely wasn’t expecting that at all, it’s just one of those days when everything comes together and it feels good,” said Osborne “I was a bit back out of the water and then worked pretty hard out of T1 to bridge to the pack of three and then we bridged to the chase pack behind Jamie (Riddle) and rode with them all day. I came into T2, not sure how far behind Jamie but came out with Jake Birtwhistle and Kurt (McDonald) and didn’t look back.
“It means everything, it’s what you train for everyday, it’s pretty special, this is by far my biggest result. I hit the lead at the far end with about 5km to go, I was running toe to toe with Jake out of T2 and saw that I had a little gap from the turnaround,” he said.
Brisbane’s Ellie Salthouse knows what it takes to win on the big stage and showed her class again on Sunday, finishing just 30 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Anna Bergsten, with Radka Kahlefeldt third.
“I’m ecstatic to get the win, it wasn’t the fast day that I wanted, we didn’t quite get the bike course record but always stoked with a win and had a surprisingly good run today, I wasn’t expecting to have such good run legs as we haven’t done too much run training yet,” said Salthouse. “I had a great run and it was probably the best part of my race, really happy to take that into the (IRONMAN 70.3) World Championship prep.”
New Zealand’s Teresa Adam surged ahead early in the swim, finishing the 1.9km course over a minute clear of Chloe Hartnett, Kahlefeldt and Salthouse. Once onto the Beach Road bike course Adam held a consistent lead for much of the 90km, with a big group coming off the bike 30 seconds behind her.
Within the first five kilometres of the run Salthouse and Bergsten hit the front, going head-to-head for the majority of the course before Salthouse moved ahead for the win.
“I felt a bit sluggish off the gun in the water, I came out a little bit further behind than I would have wanted to so I was chasing a bit on the bike but then I was keeping a nice gap from Teresa Adam and then Penny (Slater) came past me at about 65km and I got onto her wheel and we just rode together and then it ended up being five or six of us running out of transition together,” said Salthouse. “They went out at such a hot pace and I was just trying to take my time. I made a commitment to myself to get to the front of the run by kilometre five and I stuck to my own pace and it paid off, I’ve never run side by side with anyone for 19km in my whole life so that was thrilling and a little bit frustrating at times but I managed to drop Anna with about two and a half k’s to go.
“I was trying little surges the whole way, through every aid station I’d try and get rid of her but couldn’t get her and then the rubber band snapped with two and a half to go and I thought thank god. It was a huge relief when that happened and I just tried to keep on the pace for the last couple of k in case she had something left to come back or a sprint finish, I didn’t want to lose the win,” she said.
Sunday’s win was an important step in Salthouse’s preparation for next month’s VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in New Zealand, while Osborne turns his attention to the IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia Asia-Pacific Championship in three weeks.
IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne saw athletes hit the water of Port Phillip Bay for the swim, with the ride taking in two laps of Melbourne’s famous Beach Road, before a half-marathon along the St Kilda and Elwood waterfront, with the event culminating at the famous IRONMAN 70.3 finish line in Catani Gardens.
The Qatar Airways IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne is supported by the Victorian Government.
For more on the Qatar Airways IROMMAN 70.3 Melbourne visit:https://www.ironman.com/im703-melbourne
QATAR AIRWAYS IRONMAN 70.3 MELBOURNE – PROFESSIONAL MEN’S RESULTS
- Jarrod Osborne – 3:35:21
- Jake Birtwhistle – 3:37:06
- Nicholas Free – 3:38:20
- Kurt McDonald – 3:39:44
- Caleb Noble – 3:41:54
- Matt Burton – 3:42:35
- Tim Van Berkel – 3:44:19
- Nick Thompson – 3:44:55
- Calvin Amos – 3:48:02
- Joe Begbie – 3:49:51
QATAR AIRWAYS IRONMAN 70.3 MELBOURNE – PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S RESULTS
- Ellie Salthouse – 4:03:29
- Anna Bergsten – 4:04:00
- Radka Kahlefeldt – 4:06:31
- Chloe Hartnett – 4:08:45
- Penny Slater – 4:09:35
- Teresa Adam – 4:11:11
- Chloe Lane – 4:15:12
- Skye Wallace – 4:15:49
- Courtney Wevers – 4:17:40
- Kate Gillespie-Jones – 4:19:15