O’Donnell, Cave prevail at Florida 70.3

Timothy O’Donnell and Leanda Cave took the men’s and women’s titles at the Rohto Florida Ironman 70.3 Sunday at Disney World.

The men

O’Donnell’s 4th-best 24:30 swim, 4th-best 2:08:41 bike and 2nd-best 1:15:18 half marathon run was enough to hold off the Ukraine’s Viktor Zyemtsev and his race-best 1:13:53 run by 1:21. O’Donnell’s 3:51:18 time was the second best in the 7-year history of the event, behind only Craig Alexander’s 3:50:27 winning time in 2007.

O’Donnell’s first win of 2010 comes after a 5th place at Ironman California 70.3, and second places to Terenzo Bozzone at Texas 70.3 (by 29 seconds) and at St. Croix 70.3 (by 37 seconds).

TJ Tollakson came out of the water in the lead pack and almost put the race away with a sizzling 1:59:57 bike which gave him a 7-minute lead starting the run. But as the heat crept higher after a 70-degree swim start air temperature, Tollakson melted to a 1:30:26 run which left him 7th – the same finishing position he scored at the Texas Ironman 70.3 in Galveston.

Defending champion Dirk Bockel, who arrived as a long course star with a win at Florida 70.3 last year, a 3rd at Ironman New Zealand and a 7th at his Ironman Hawaii debut, plus a 2nd at the high-dollar Abu Dhabi International earlier this year, was in the hunt until the run. Bockel shadowed O’Donnell as if it were a match race on the swim and bike, then dropped to third with a 1:17:14 run that surrendered the runner-up slot to Zyemtsev’s flying feet by 16 seconds.

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