Pete Jacobs, Leanda Cave Win 2012 Ironman World Championship

Australia's Pete Jacobs improved his 2nd place finish in 2011 by one critical place at the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, HI, and won the 2012 Ironman World Championships in 8:18:37. The 31-year-old braved unusually tough winds on the bike to head into T2 in 2nd place, 8 1/2 minutes behind Belgium's Marino Vanhoenacker, and ran Marino down around mile 10 to claim the $120,000 prize and keep Australia's 6-win streak alive. Germany's Andreas Realert took second five minutes back.

In the women's race, Great Britain's Leanda Cave pulled away in the last 3 miles of the run to win her second world title of the year. The 34-year-old Cave won the Ironman 70.3 world championship last month and carried that momentum into Kona, finishing in 9:15:54. A strong pack of females, including four 2012 IRONMAN Champions, charged along the 112-mile bike course of the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway as Cave, Caroline Steffen and Mary Beth Ellis pulled away and headed into T2 with the lead. After Steffen set the lead pace for much of the run, the race would turn into a close battle when, in the final 5k, Cave made her pass for the win. With the victory, Cave became the second person in IRONMAN history, and first female, to win the IRONMAN World Championship 70.3 and IRONMAN World Championship in the same year. Great Britain has held on to the women's IRONMAN World Championship title the last five out of six races. 

Age groupers also tore it up on Sunday, with Christian Muller in the 40-44 category broke the take in a sizzling 08:54:17 to post the fastest age-group result of the day. There were 20 finishers in the male 70-74 age-group (outstanding!), and Milos Kostic won the category when he blazed across the finish line in a stunning time of 12:15:41 that many triathletes half his age would die for. The oldest female finisher was Harriet Anderson in the 75-79 category who just beat the 17-hour cut-off with a time of 16:59:19 in a truly inspirational performance. There were three male triathletes in the 80+ category who completed the 2.4 mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2 marathon well within the 17-hour deadline with 20+ finisher Lew Hollander taking the title of oldest finisher at 82-years-old. (all results)

Top five professional men:
1. Pete Jacobs		AUS	8:18:37
2. Andreas Raelert		DEU	8:23:40
3. Frederik Van Lierde		BEL	8:24:09
4. Sebastian Kienle		DEU	8:27:08
5. Faris Al-Sultan		DEU	8:28:33

Top five professional women:
1. Leanda Cave	GBR	9:15:54
2. Caroline Steffen	SUI	9:16:58
3. Mirinda Carfrae	AUS	9:21:41
4. Sonja Tajsich	DEU	9:22:45
5. Mary Beth Ellis	USA	9:22:57