2012 IM Hawaii: Bart Aernouts 11th, Axel Zeebroek 15th, Bruno Clerbout and Tine Deckers 16th, Sofie Goos 25th
With four top-16 finishes, the 2012 Ironman Hawaii brought solid performances by the Uplace Pro Triathlon Team. Bart Aernouts (8:37:31) claimed an impressive 11th place in his first Ironman Hawaii; Axel Zeebroek (8:45:12) came in fifteenth, Bruno Clerbout (8:46:44) and Tine Deckers (9:48:38) sixteenth. A disappointed Sofie Goos (10:14:39) finished 25th.
Pete Jacobs (Australia; 8:18:37) won the men’s world title. Andreas Raelert (Germany; 8:23:40) finished second. Fellow Belgian Frederik Van Lierde (8:24:09) impressively ran to third place.
Leanda Cave (UK; 9:15:54) took the women’s race for an Ironman-double (she also won this year’s world championship half Ironman). Second and third place went to Caroline Steffen (Switzerland; 9:16:58) and Mirinda Carfrae (Australia, 9:21:41) respectively.
Bart Aernouts kicked off his race with a poor swim. Recording the 42nd time, he already had more than 12 minutes to make up post-swim. In the cycling leg, he powered through the field, moving up to the 27th position at the end of the 180 kilometers. Bart continued his momentum in the marathon. With the fastest run of the day, he stormed to a superb eleventh place in his first appearance in the Ironman Hawaii.
Axel Zeebroek started strong. He came out of the water in 19th position, just a minute behind fastest swimmer Andy Potts. He did well on the bike too, maintaining a top-10 position for most of the bike leg. Only towards the end, Axel lost time and places, starting the marathon in twelfth position. In the beginning of the run, Axel was passed by a number of faster runners before settling into a good pace that brought him the top-15 finish he had hoped for.
Bruno Clerbout was able to limit the damage in the swim to five minutes, coming out of the water in 37th position. In cycling, consolidation was his goal. It worked out perfectly. Bruno started his strongest discipline, the marathon, in 32nd position. With a very strong run, Bruno caught no less than 16 triathletes, wrapping up the race with a great 16th place.
Tine Deckers already had more than ten minutes to make up after a bad swim. From the 23rd position, she began her move to the front, which she saw halted because of a four-minute penalty for drafting. Yet she was able to make up time and places to reach T2 in 17th position. Recording a solid marathon, Tine managed to move up a spot to take 16th place.
Sofie Goos was more than seven minutes behind after the swim. But the bike leg did not bring a push forward. A weak performance on the bike set Sofie back to 28th position. A solid marathon allowed her to recover a few places.
Complete results:
http://kona.ironman.com/tracker.html
With four top-16 finishes, the 2012 Ironman Hawaii brought solid performances by the Uplace Pro Triathlon Team. Bart Aernouts (8:37:31) claimed an impressive 11th place in his first Ironman Hawaii; Axel Zeebroek (8:45:12) came in fifteenth, Bruno Clerbout (8:46:44) and Tine Deckers (9:48:38) sixteenth. A disappointed Sofie Goos (10:14:39) finished 25th.
