Mens Hawaii Ironman World Champ's

Stadler Takes Hawaii Ironman Mens World Title (By Jay Prasuhn)

Clive, Tsunami's very own Ironman racer was also racing on Saturday in Hawaii. Finishing in a time of 11hrs 37mins in what is the toughest Ironman Race in the world...

It?s been five years of Stadler racing his way, Go hard on the bike for the chance at a race-winning buffer for the run. For five years he?s done well (third-place finish (?00) and two fourth-place finishes (?01-?03), all in the face of pundits who said Stadler would never win the Hawaii Ironman World Championship with such an approach. Normann Stadler?s go-hard-on-the-bike approach finally reaped the finest reward as he destroyed the field with a 4:37:58 bike that took him onto the run with an exceptionally comfortable 20-minute buffer.

While defending champion Peter Reid posted a PR 2:46:10, marathon in an attempt to reel in the powerful German, Reid?s 10-minute gain through the marathon was still another 10-minutes short in the end, and an emotional Stadler crossed the line arms aloft with the long-awaited win in 8:33:29.

?I knew I could do this,? Stadler said. ?I was always on the podium here, and beyond that I was a 10-time national triathlon and duathlon champion and had these fourths and thirds here. I knew I was capable.?

The 33-year-old Stadler set up his day well with a 54:27 swim that put him out of the water a minute behind his main competitors. Stadler was also looking forward to a new edict that splits would not be called out to the athletes by race officials on the course.

By Waikoloa, Stadler had captured and passed a key group of athletes including defending champion Peter Reid of Canada and American Tim DeBoom, then passed a few intrepid voyagers up the road to take the lead and literally ride away to the victory.

While he enjoyed a strong effort, many others were having difficulty on a day that didn?t present terribly oppressive heat but offered up strong winds?from tradewinds to offshore gusts?that battered athletes all day.

The first to concede with DNF?s early in the bike among the men were German Jurgen Zack and Belgian Luc Van Lierde. Later it was the highly-touted Kona rookie Simon Lessing who was assessed a draft zone penalty and later pulled the pin, dropping out. Australian hopeful Luke Bell dropped out in T2 while well in the podium hunt, while conversely German Thomas Hellriegel bailed out after a completing flat bike that saw him out of the mix.

Battling rough days, last year?s third-place man, Cameron Brown and Australian Chris Legh, well out of the hunt, would go on to simply finish. Kona heat took its toll on Chris McCormack, who dropped out of the race at the 13-mile mark of the run to nutritional disorders.

Of those who survived the bike and a crew of officials who were exceptionally active in doling out penalties for 10-meter draft zone and passing infractions (the victims including, along with Brown and Legh, DeBoom and Lessing), the run pursuit of Stadler began with Reid setting a torrid pace in the opening six miles under the stale Kona sun, and he managed to snake past five men to move into second.

But none would challenge the quiet German en route to his first Hawaii Ironman title. Reid drove strong to second, while Faris Al Sultan proved his bike and run performances of a year ago were no fluke to take third. German Alex Taubert coupled one of his best career bike rides with a run that took him to fourth for the day.

2004 Hawaii Ironman Triathlon

Oct. 16, 2004, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run

	NAME	RANK (S/B/R)	AGE	SWIM	BIKE	RUN	TOTAL
1	NORMANN STADLER	55/1/1	33	00:54:27	04:37:58	02:57:52	08:33:29
2	PETER REID	40/13/2	35	00:53:12	05:01:38	02:46:09	08:43:40
3	FARIS AL-SULTAN	5/4/3	26	00:50:39	04:55:44	02:54:51	08:45:14
4	ALEX TAUBERT	50/3/4	35	00:53:24	04:49:44	03:00:36	08:48:35
5	RUTGER BEKE	57/14/5	27	00:54:35	04:59:57	02:55:54	08:54:26
6	TORBJORN SINDBALLE	38/2/6	27	00:53:07	04:48:50	03:12:32	08:58:45
7	CAMERON WIDOFF	26/6/7	35	00:51:31	04:59:36	03:04:07	08:59:25
8	TIMO BRACHT	72/12/8	29	00:54:54	04:58:41	03:05:59	09:03:11
9	RENE ROVERA	107/18/9	36	00:56:28	05:04:30	02:59:41	09:04:32
10	RAYNARD TISSINK	48/15/10	30	00:53:18	05:02:45	03:00:46	09:04:51
754	CLIVE MIDDLETON	887/756/754	41	01:10:48	06:08:05	04:09:16	11:37:58

By Jay Prasuhn
Race report taken from www.triathletemag.com

Well done Clive, next year we hope to have a few more Tsumani'ites over there. See you at the AGM mate...