Rasmus Henning won the 70.3 half ironman race in Calgary, Canada after being in the front of the race from start to finish. His 22:50 1,9 km swim was second best and he took of alone on the 90 km bike ride. He entered T2 in first place ahead of a group of favorites but ran off and took the win with a race best 1:15:08 half marathon and a time of 3:51:42 – Chris Legh was second 40 seconds back and Jeff Symonds was third in 3:52:36.
The win secures Rasmus Henning his Hawaii slot.
Quotes from Rasmus Henning:
“I had a good swim and exited the water in second place after Joseph Lampe who pushed hard to be first man out of the water. I didn’t want to go hard after him at that point and instead overtook him in T1 so I rode out on the 90 km alone. I pushed rather hard in the beginning but thought the fast guys would eventually catch me so I conserved energy and found a good, solid pace. A group of 4 including a flying Tom Lowe caught me at km 60 and the five of us rode into T2 together.”
“Rich Allen and Chris Legh quickly caught up with me but I felt good on the run. The run course was quite beautiful and actually hilly too. I noticed that the two fell off my pace pretty quick on the downhill sections without me having to push hard and they lost 5.10 seconds. That made me think of the ITU race in Des Moines in 2008 where I won using the downhills on the run. Once down I continued at a comfortable pace and while I never saw Allen again Legh came up to me again but fell off at another downhill section. When 5-6 km to go there was a rather steep downhill and a long uphill and when I had a minute on him on the top I could control the race to the finish line without having to dig too deep. Things went well for me today and it feels great to be able to run well and well confidence even though I’m not in the best shape yet. I felt I had to powers to take the win on the run and it was nice not to have to go all out because I have a 14 hour flight back home to Denmark tonight – actually with a stop at Heathrow but no competing in the Games for me this year.”
Rasmus Henning’s splits:
1,9 km swim – 22:50
90 km bike – 2:11:10
21,1 km run, 1:15:08 (race best)
Top 3:
1st: Rasmus Henning, Denmark – 3:51:02
2nd: Chris Legh, Australia – 3:51:42
3rd: Jeff Symonds, Canada – 3:52:36
