It was a classic battle between the best cyclist and the best runner and at the end of Ironman Kalmar, the runner won this pro men only contest by a margin of 1 minute and 10 seconds.

Clemente Alonso-McKernan of Spain, 39, who won Ironman South Africa in 2012 and Ironman Barcelona in 2014 , led the swim in 47:29 which gave him a 2:52 lead on his eventual race rival, long time pro cyclist and newly minted Ironman triathlete Cameron Wurf of Australia.

Wurf, 34, whose best previous finish since switching to professional triathlon in 2016 was a 7th place at Ironman Cairns earlier this year, unleashed his pro cycling powers to wrest the lead from Alonso-McKernan at 60 kilometers. By 110km, Wurf enjoyed a modest lead of 1:54 over Alonso-McKernan and Karl-Johan Danielsson of Sweden. Whereupon Wurf put the pedal to the metal to create a solid lead at T2.

By the end of a race-best 4:14:27 bike split – 10 minutes better than Alonso-McKernan - Wurf held a 7:56 lead on Alonso-McKernan and 7:59 on Danielsson. Wurf, who obviously improved his running, held off Alonso-McKernan through 32 kilometers of the run.

After a race-best 2:50:23, Alonso-McKernan finished in 8:07:48 with a 1:10 margin of victory over Wurf, who ran a personal-best 3:00:38 to finish his so-far career-best 2nd place.

Esben Hovgaard of Denmark ran a pro men’s 2nd-best 2:58:03 marathon to pass long time 3rd-place contender Danielsson (3:12:05 split) late in the run. Hovgaard finished 3rd in 8:25:18, 16:20 behind Wurf and 3:14 ahead of 4th place finisher Danielsson.

Ironman Kalmar
Kalmar, Sweden
August 19, 2017
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Pro Men

1. Clemente Alonso-McKernan (ESP) 8:07:48
2. Cameron Wurf (AUS) 8:08:58
3. Esben Hovgaard (DNK) 8:25:18
4. Karl-Johan Danielsson (SWE) 8:28:32
5. Daniil Sapunov (UKR) 8:34:02
6. Geert Janssens (BEL) 8:36:12 * M30-34
7. Gabriel Björlin (SWE) 8:37:35 *M18-24
8. Andrey Lyatskiy (RUS) 8:44:16
9. Michael Smith Larsen (DNK) 8:46:09
10. Jonas Örarbäck (SWE) 8:49:21