There was a time that we all thought Luke McKenzie was a run away from being able to compete with the world's best in Kona. Today, for a couple of exciting miles towards the end of the marathon, he took on a man who is one of the best marathon runners our sport has seen. While Viktor Zyemtsev hasn't been able to crack a top performance at the Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, he has managed to put together a whole pile of marathon runs in the 2:40s to claim three titles at Ironman Austria, two in Coeur d'Alene and one in Lake Placid. In two of those wins he won over the last few miles of the marathon over Tom Evans.Today he added a seventh title in much the same manner, but this time he passed Luke McKenzie to take the win. It wasn't as though McKenzie was going slow – his 2:51 split is a personal best. Nope, McKenzie forced Zyemtsev to pull out all the stops and run an incredible 2:43 marathon here to get the win.
For two miles it looked like McKenzie might just have enough to pull this one off, but in the end the experience, the speed and the simple toughness of Viktor Zyemtsev was too much. McKenzie showed us all today that he has what it takes to compete with anyone on the planet in an Ironman. Today he got beat to the line by a guy who simply had one more gear when it counted.
Raynard Tissink had a great race here today, too. His third place finish has to feel good after the last few years where he struggled with what he's now learned is asthma.
Another couple of performances of note: John Flanagan, who led out of the water, managed to hang on for sixth today – which could very well get him a pro slot in Kona in October. A great athlete proving once again that the best athletes always find a way to succeed. Max Longree proved once again he is one very fast runner, and remains one of the great characters in our sport. He didn't win today as he did a year ago, but his fifth place finish certainly was impressive. Finally, Andreas Niedrig, fresh off a couple of years spent making a movie that documented his amazing journey “from junkie to Ironman” continued his new-found life with an eighth place finish today.
