Vanhoenacker wins Ironman Austria for 4th straight year; Bayliss takes women’s title

Vanhoenacker, Bayliss win Ironman Austria

KLAGENFURT, Austria — Marino Vanhoenacker of Belgium set a course record in winning his fourth straight Ironman Austria triathlon on Sunday, while Bella Bayliss of Britain won the women’s event.

Vanhoenacker finished in 8 hours, 1 minute, 38 seconds, beating last year’s winning time by 4:29. It was his sixth Ironman title, after also winning in Florida in 2005 and in South Africa earlier this year.

James Cunnama of South Africa finished second 12:40 back. Bayliss’ husband, Stephen, last year’s runner-up, was third in 8:17:06.

Vanhoenacker came out of the water sixth, but soon took the lead in the cycling stage and cruised to victory.

Hannes Hempel of Austria, who was excluded from the race because of doping allegations until a court overruled the organizer’s decision, finished ninth, 29 minutes behind Vanhoenacker.

In the women’s race, Bayliss overtook leader Lucie Zelenkova of the Czech Republic after 87 miles of biking and kept the lead for the rest of the race.

Bayliss finished in 8:50:13 for her fifth career Ironman title. Sonja Tajsich of Germany was 9:32 behind in second, and Zelenkova took third in 9:07:24.