Renata draws first blood, wins XTERRA Guam

  Look out. Renata Bucher is back.

After a disappointing performance in the 2011 XTERRA Saipan and missing the Guam trip last year, the Swiss triathlete made her presence felt early in the series of races this month, winning the 2012 XTERRA Guam Championship last Saturday.

The 34-year-old Luzern native timed in at 2:47:25 in the first part of XTERRA Asia Tour’s “Triple Crown” to beat four other pros, including Saipan’s own Mieko Carey (fourth). Bucher, who slid to third place behind U.S. pro Shonny Vanlandingham and Austria’s Carina Wasle in XTERRA Saipan last year, had an impressive 15-minute lead over Wasle in last Saturday’s race and was the lone female to complete the 1.5K swim, 31K bike, and 8.2K run under three hours. The diminutive Austrian clocked in at 3:02:26, while XTERRA Guam first timer Jacqui Slack of United Kingdom submitted 3:07:10 to place third. Carey, who ruled last year’s XTERRA Guam, fell to fourth with her 3:14:22.

Carey was the second woman out of the water, finishing the swim in the waters off Piti at 24:26, just less than three minutes behind Slack (21:32). Bucher and Wasle completed the swim race almost at the same time with the former timing in at 25:07 and the latter at 25:09.

Behind by about four minutes after the first leg of the race, Bucher grabbed the lead midway in the bike race and boosted her chances for her second XTERRA Guam win when Slack made a wrong turn along the bike course. According to the XTERRA World Tour website, Slack lost about 10 minutes due to her unfamiliarity with the course and ended up completing the leg in 1:53:53, way far behind Bucher’s 1:31:43. Wasle moved up to second place going into the bike-run transition are after logging 1:46:22 in the bike leg. Carey tallied 1:54:53 in the bike race.

Then in the run leg, Bucher kept pushing and posted the fastest time (50:35) among the four women’s pros to complete the big win and make her the triathlete to beat in this weekend’s XTERRA Philippines (March 17) and next week’s XTERRA Saipan (March 24). Wasle submitted 50:55 in the run leg, while Slack and Carey recorded 51:45 and 55:03, respectively.

Former pro and inaugural XTERRA Saipan winner Jamie Whitmore also joined the race and the cancer survivor finished 86th overall and first in the Challenged Athlete division with her time of 4:52:09.

In the men’s division, Australian Ben Allen won over the returning Olivier Marceau of Switzerland, clocking in at 2:29:42 against the latter’s 2:33:22. Six other pros were entered in the men’s field. Allen (19:45 in swim and 1:29:38 in bike) and Marceau (21:05 in swim and 1:27:54 in bike) were neck and neck after the swim and bike legs, before Allen managed to take a crucial lead in the first climb in the run leg. The Australian timed in at 40:19 in the run race against Marceau’s 44:23.