The young Aussie, Clayton Fettell, captures his first Ironman 70.3 title in North at the 2012 Ironman 70.3 Mooseman.

Fettell makes his mark early

Clayton Fettell put his stamp on the 2012 Ironman Mooseman early with his dominating 23:05 - 1.2 mile swim in New Hampshire’s Newfound Lake. The young Australian opened up a 2:22 lead out of the water over the two-time and defending Ironman 70.3 Mooseman champion, Ukraine’s Max Kriat. A chase group of five were all just under 5:00 back to the leader including Canadians Elliot Holtham, Martin Lamontangne Lacasse and David Harju and Americans Karl Bordine and Logan Franks.

The 26-year-old Fettell showed that he isn’t just a one-trick-pony by smacking out a race-best bike ride of 2:18:33 – 4:30 faster than anyone else on the day. That resulted in the Aussie carrying a 9:48 advantage over Bordine, who was his closet rival coming into transition. Kriat made it to transition in third, but had an insurmountable 13:18 deficit to deal with as the result of not coping well with the cold and damp conditions over the 56-mile bike, and now would have to be content with protecting his position.

Going hard and fast for the open miles of the race, Fettell managed to extend his advantage over all his rivals behind him. Kriat overtook Bordine in the middle stages of the run. Kriat found himself running solidly in second; however he remained over 13:31 in arrears to Fattell with four miles remaining in the race.

Fettell wins by a ton

Fettell put it on cruise-control over the closing miles of the run and captured the 2012 Ironman Mooseman title in a 4:00:10, recording a 23:05 swim, 2:18:33 bike and 1:16:57 run along the way to a 13:18 winning margin over Kriat.

Taken in part from article by Sean Skene