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Ironman is Special...

Tuesday, 24 November 2015 06:10

MINNESOTA MULTISPORT AWARDS - To many, picking MICHELLE ANDRES' dominating victory at Ironman Wisconsin was a slam dunk in the women's PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR category, and we would never claim that it wasn't worthy. Yes, it did win the trophy, but for several Selectors, it wasn't quite a slam dunk.

Here's why:

- ELAINE NELSON's nominated victory at Apple was arguably against the deepest women's run-bike-run field of the season in the US. Yes, even deeper that Standard Distance Nationals. It could be argued that, relatively...

speaking, Elaine faced stouter competition at Apple than Michelle faced at IMOO.

- SUZIE FOX's (photo R with Elaine) nominated performance was her race record win at Lake Waconia. There, she lowered a record set by Cathy Yndestad back in 2007, a year in which CY was nominated for US Athlete of the Year. Cathy's long-standing mark was 1:33:59. Suzie rocked a 1:33:05. By contrast, Michelle's 10:08 at Wisconsin was seven minutes slower than the CR and three minutes off her own personal best on the course, set in 2012.

- CHRISTINA ROBERTS' nominated performance was her victory at Heart of the Lakes. The field was perceived as being one of the state's top 2 most competitive women's tri fields, with Life Time - Minneapolis, of the season. (Yes, Bridget McCoy's win at Minneapolis was given serious consideration for a nomination in this category.) Christina's time was the fastest women's time at HOLT since 2009, when Cathy Yndestad set her amateur CR. Once again, one could argue that Christina's effort was award worthy for the same reasons that Elaine's and Suzie's were.

- Also nominated was DANI VSETECKA's win at Door County Half, where the Minnesota Rookie of the Year beat runner-up Stacey Henkel by just under five and a half minutes. It was Dani's first half IM and she beat one of the premier long course amateur triathletes in the US. Henkel is the amateur course record holder (10:01) at Ironman Wisconsin. It could be argued that Dani's effort was superior to Andres' because she (Michelle) did not face an athlete with Henkel's credentials.

Our point is that ALL of the nominated performances were award worthy, that there were strong arguments for each effort. With this said, it needs to be noted that ALL of the Selectors picked Michelle's win as the Performance of the Year. Ironman is special, and Wisconsin is one of IM's most special events. And Michelle Andres is special,too.  She is clearly our state's most gifted ultra-distance female triathlete.