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Butterfield fails to finish in Hawaii

Easy rider: Frodeno posted the third fastest time ever recorded in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. (Photograph by Mark J. Terrill/AP)

Tyler Butterfield experienced a race to forget at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships in Kona this weekend after withdrawing early on in the run.

Butterfield, who also received a five-minute draft penalty during the bike, had hoped for a top-ten finish at the most important race of his season but was only able to complete five of the 26.1-miles run.

It is the second time Butterfield, who missed eight weeks of running training this season because of a calf strain, has failed to finish the championships, having pulled out during the bike stage because of back problems in 2014.

The 33-year-old had a strong 2.4-miles swim on Saturday, exiting the water in 28th position in a time of 50min 7sec before finishing the 112-miles bike in 4:48:20 in 39th place.

Butterfield, who finished fifth in Hawaii last year in the performance of his career, was among several top names to withdraw from the race, including Tim Reed, of Australia, this year’s Ironman 70.3 world champion.

Germany’s Jan Frodeno and Switzerland’s Daniela Ryf successfully defended their Ironman world championships in Saturday’s race.

Frodeno’s time of 8:06:30 was the third-fastest in the event’s 38-year history, and Ryf had an 8:46:46 to smash the women’s course record by more than five minutes.

The 35-year-old Frodeno had the third-fastest swim and the eighth-fastest bike split, before running away from 2014 world champion and fellow German triathlete Sebastian Kienle early in the marathon.

Kienle finished second at 8:10:02, and Patrick Lange, also from Germany, was third at 8:11:14.

With a run time of 2:39:45, Lange broke the 27-year-old course record set by Mark Allen in 1989.

Frodeno was greeted at the finish line by wife Emma and infant son Luca.

“It feels that much sweeter,” he said. “It’s been a long year with lots of sacrifices. I’m just grateful to be here.”