Longree and Kramer-Postma win in Kentucky

Germany's Maximilian Longree and Mariska Kramer-Postma from the Netherlands won today's Ford Ironman Louisville. Both came from behind during the marathon to claim the win - for Longree it was his first Ironman title, while Kramer-Postma now adds the Louisville title to her win at Ironman France.

Longree's impressive 2:48 marathon got him to the line well ahead of a strong field that included last year's winner, Chris McDonald, two-time Olympians Chris Hauth (swimming) and Andrew Johns (triathlon) along with multiple top ten Ironman finisher, Sergio Marques.

Johns spent most of the swim on Hauth's feet and then led for the first two-thirds of the bike before McDonald took over the lead, which he held starting the run. Longree started to make up time on the men ahead of him towards the end of the bike. Once out on the marathon course, it quickly became apparent that Longree was on his way to the win - he passed McDonald at the 13-mile point of the run and never looked back.

Longree celebrated his win at the finish line, located at Louisville's Fourth Street Live, with an All-American cheeseburger.

Top five professional men's results:

 

1. Maximilian Longree, DEU 8:33:58
2. Chris McDonald, AUS 8:54:52
3. Sergio Marques, POR 8:59:15
4. Michael Goehner, DEU 9:04:24
5. Chris Hauth, USA 9:13:24

Women's race

Hillary Biscay, a regular fixture on the Ironman circuit exited the swim in first today and was followed by a field consisting of Hawaii's newest professional athlete, Bree Wee, last year's female winner, Heather Gollnick, 2006 Ironman France champion Mariska Kramer-Postma and two-time Ironman champion Lisbeth Kristensen. Biscay led the bike portion through mile 30 when Kristensen took over, only to be overtaken by Bree Wee at mile 70.

Wee entered transition first and held the lead through the first half of the marathon. At that point Kristensen moved the front, but she, too, would run into problems at mile 20. Kramer-Postma ran her way through the women's field and eventually took the lead with just four miles to go. Gollnick passed Kristensen in the closing miles of the marathon to claim third while Biscay hung on for fourth.

Top five professional women's results:

1. Mariska Kramer-Postma, NLD 9:54:17
2. Heather Gollnick, USA 9:56:53
3. Lisbeth Kristensen, DEN 9:58:33
4. Hillary Biscay, USA 9:59:31
5. Rebecca Preston, AUS 10:06:15

To check out our complete day of coverage on Ironman.com, click on the live coverage tab on the main page, or go to the coverage section of the Ford Ironman Louisville page.