THE Ironman 70.3 event run in Port Macquarie on Sunday as a hit in more ways than one.
Not only was there great weather and top-level competition, but the field of more than 1000 resulted in a huge financial boost for the town in terms of accommodation, food and ancillary spending.
“There were 1400 competitors and they brought their families and children, so you’d have to say at least 4000 people,” Port Macquarie Tourism Association president Janette Hyde said.
“That’s worth many millions to the town, maybe as much as $8m according to some calculations. It would have to be one of the biggest weekends in terms of revenue for the town.”
In the men’s, Brisbane’s Josh Amberger held off a strong field to claim victory, while in the women’s Sydney’s Lisa Marangon put together a strong bike leg to set herself up for a convincing win.
For Amberger, who recently returned home after a five-month stint in the US, it was a reassuring win, from Sam Appleton who ran through the field to snare second and Joseph Lampe rounding out the podium.
Marangon dominated the bike and run to claim one her best wins over the distance, further inspired with 13-year-old son Josh watching on. Andrea Forrest delivered an outstanding performance to finish second ahead of Holly Ranson.
“It’s been a hard year for me. I’ve just come back from five months in the US and I’m just really happy to be racing back here in Australia,” Amberger said.
I think we do things a lot better down here and I couldn’t be happier with my performance. The body felt fantastic.”
Twenty-four-year-old Amberger led out of the swim from Joseph Lampe, Tom Davison and Casey Munro, but by the halfway mark on the 90km bike leg had pulled away from the field to lead by two minutes.
At the changeover he had amassed a four-minute 20-second lead to New Zealand’s Davison.
Davison managed to break away from the chase group to head out onto the run in chase of Amberger but faded on the back end of the run to finish sixth. Appleton put in a blistering run leg (1:15:02) to run through for second from Lampe.
Women’s winner Lisa Marangon was full of praise for her team that helped her recover from injury and the fantastic crowd.
Being patient and not running – it all paid off and I’m really, really happy,” she said.
“It’s a really good feeling to win this title. I’ve had a pretty rough year not racing to my full potential but maybe that injury that happened 10 days ago was a blessing in disguise and I could perform at my best today so I was really, really happy.”
Port Macquarie’s David Capper was among the dozens of locals who competed.
“This is my fourth ironman here; I’ve done it four years in a row,” he said. “It was a hard day, windy on the bike and pretty hot during the run, but really that’s normal. I’m pretty happy with my time of 5.15.”
RESULTS
Men: 1st Josh Amberger 3:56:47, 2nd Sam Appleton 4:00:10, 3rd Joseph Lampe 4:01:34.
Women: 1st Lisa Marangon 4:30:48, 2nd Andrea Forrest 4:40:53, 3rd Holly Randon 4:52:51.
