Paul Ambrose led from start to finish to take out the 2012 Ironman Australia in Port Macquarie. The 2012 Ironman Louisville champion held off a fast finishing Tim Berkel who was leaving nothing on the run course in a last ditch effort to catch Ambrose. We saw Ambrose employ these tactics in Abu Dhabi this year to only falter in the run. This wasn’t the case this time. Ambrose can now call himself a multiple Ironman winner.

Tim Berkel only decided to do the race after watching Ironman Melbourne six weeks ago, having previously said he would not race any iron distance races this season. He had the run of the day with a 2:47:20 marathon and Jason Shortis was not far behind with a 2:51. Earlier in the day former Ironman great Bruce Thomas said Shortis would run a 2:50 and push for the podium.

Ambrose said he needed a 15min gap off the bike to keep Berkel at bay and this was almost what he had at the start of the run. Berkel knew if he could hold Ambrose to a ten minute gap that he would be able to run him down. Today it was Ambrose’s day.

After the race Ambrose was open about the way he had approached races before. ‘I have approached races before without paying due respect to what I was about to do. I approached this race very differently and put in the work needed to win Ironman Australia. My training partner Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack has been a huge influence on me and the valuable knowledge I have gained from Macca put me in a position to win this Ironman”.

A beaming Michelle Mitchell has won Ironman Australia after coming from behind on the run to pass Nicole Ward just after the 10km mark. Ward had a 90 second lead going out on to the run with Hilary Biscay between them. Biscay did not look comfortable at all as she started the run and never really found her stride.

Ward found herself in the unusual position of leading the bike for a lot of the race. Usually her weakness she has addressed this and wanted to lead on to the run and leave no questions for the end of the race. She ran hard from the start as she knew Mitchell was a strong runner and the only way to win was to run fast.

Mitchell finished a close second to Rebekah Keat at Challenge Cairns last June in only her second ever Iron distance race. She went on to win Challenge Barcelona last year but said after her win today that winning an Ironman race and getting a slot for Kona was a dream.