Bertrand Billard of France and Lisa Hütthaler of Austria prevailed at Ironman 70.3 Budapest.
Men
Billard overcame a 1:36 deficit after the swim with a dominating 1:57:06 bike split that gave him a 3:21 lead over Horst Reichel of Germany at T2. Billard defended his lead with a 7th-best 1:15:50 run that gave back 2:46 to Reichel (1:13:04 run). Billard, the 2013 and 2014 ITU Long Distance World Champion, finished in 3:41:11 with a 35 seconds margin of victory over Reichel and 1:54 over 3rd-place Ivan Tutukin of Russia, who posted a 1:10:42 half marathon – the day’s fastest run.
Women
Hütthaler’s path to victory was much like Billard’s. The Austrian emerged from the water in 5th, 2:35 behind swim leader Carina Brechters of Germany, 1:22 behind Vanessa Raw of Great Britain, 5 seconds back of Emma Pallant of Great Britain, and 1:57 ahead of home country favorite Erika Csomor of Hungary.
During a swift transition, Hütthaler passed three women and sliced her deficit to 1:13 behind Brechters starting the bike. By 28km, Hütthaler took the lead and arrived at T2 after a women’s 2nd-best 2:12:26 split which gave her a 3:52 advantage over Anna Halász of Hungary, who made up for a 7:30 swim deficit with a women’s-best 2:11:39 bike split. Next in line were Csomor (+3:52), Pallant (+4:24), Alice Hector of Great Britain (+4:41), and Raw (+4:43).
Hütthaler was never threatened during her women’s 2nd-fastest 1:21:43 run, which brought her to the finish in 4:06:36 with a 2:55 margin of victory over Pallant, who passed Csomor and Halasz on her way to the women's-fastest 1:20:14 half marathon. Halász took the final spot on the podium with a women's 3rd-best 1:23:31 run that brought her to the line 2:45 behind Pallant and 2:41 ahead of 4th place finisher Raw. Csomor fell to 5th with a 1:27:31 run.
Ironman 70.3 Budapest
Budapest, Hungary
July 30, 2016
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Bertrand Billard (FRA) 3:41:11
2. Horst Reichel (GER) 3:41:46
3. Ivan Tutukin (RUS) 3:43:05
4. Viktor Zyemtsev (UKR) 3:43:55
5. Daniil Sapunov (UKR) 3:43:59
6. Ognjen Stojanovic (SRB) 3:45:57
7. Ivan Raña (ESP) 3:46:04
8. Dávid Hankó (HUN) 3:46:56
9. Daniel Fontana (ITA) 3:54:59
10. Philipp Mock (GER) 3:59:24 *M25-29
Women
1. Lisa Hütthaler (AUT) 4:06:36
2. Emma Pallant (GBR) 4:09:31
3. Anna Halász (HUN) 4:12:16
4. Vanessa Raw (GBR) 4:14:57
5. Erika Csomor (HUN) 4:16:16
6. Amanda Wendorff (USA) 4:22:20
7. Antonina Reznikov (ISR) 4:25:00 *F30-34
8. Katharina Grohmann (GER) 4:25:02
9. Sarah Lewis (GBR) 4:25:46 *F35-39
10. Lyndsay Fraser (THA) 4:26:02 *F30-34
