Leanda Cave of Great Britain and Kevin Collington of the U.S. won the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Costa Rica.

Women

Cave overcame a 4 seconds deficit to Lauren Goss after the swim with a women’s 2nd-best bike split and a race-best run to finish in 4:13:20 with a 5:39 margin of victory over Goss and 12 minutes advantage on 3rd-place finisher Dede Griesbauer.

Goss led the swim in 26:58 which gave her a 4 seconds lead on Cave, 5 seconds on Griesbauer and 2:41 on Sarah Cameto of the U.S. After 27.5km of the bike, Griesbauer seized the lead by 19 seconds on Cave, 43 seconds on Goss, 4:04 on Cameto, and 7:42 on Pamela Tastets of Chile.

By 68km, Griesbauer increased her lead to 1:48 on Cave, 4:44 on Goss and 7:36 on Cameto. After a women’s–best 2:12:08 bike split, Griesbauer led at T2 by 1:46 on Cave (2nd-fastest 2:14:26 bike split) and 5:11 on Goss.

Cave went right to work on the run, slicing her deficit to Griesbauer to 30 seconds after 2.4km, while Goss remained 4:02 arrears. After 6.1km, Cave took the lead by 1:28 on Griesbauer and 3:32 on Goss. At 11.5km of the run, Goss took over 2nd place, 3:32 back of the new leader. At 19km, Cave had a 5:33 advantage on Goss and 10 minutes on Griesbauer. After a women's-best 1:28:57 half marathon, Cave finished in 4:13:20 with a 5:39 margin of victory over Goss (1:31:04 run) and 12 minutes n Griesbauer (1:41:27 run).

Men

Leonard Chacon of Costa Rica led the men’s swim wave in 25:00, 1 second in front of Collington, 2 seconds ahead of Pablo Herrera of Costa Rica, 3 seconds ahead of Carlos Quinchara Forero of Colombia, and 4 seconds ahead of AJ Baucco of the U.S. and Felipe Van De Wyngard of Chile.

Early in the bike leg, Baucco threw a chain on his bike and withdrew. After 27.5km of the bike leg, Van De Wyngard seized the lead by 2 seconds over Quinchara Forero, 4 seconds on Collington, 5 seconds on Chacon, and 3:14 on Herrera. After 54 kilometers, the quartet of Van De Wyngard, Chacon, Quinchara Forero and Collington opened a lead of 6 minutes on the chasers.

With bike splits between 2:00:33 to 2:00:43, Collington, Chacon, Quinchara Forero and Van De Wyngard had a 5:17 lead on Steve McKenna and 6:47 on Herrera at T2.

After 9km, Collington led Quinchara Forero by 2:01, Van De Wyngard by 2:06 and Chacon by 3:51. After a race-best 1:15:36 half marathon, Collington finished in 3:43:21 with a 4:37 margin of victory over Quinchara Forero, 6:23 on 3rd-place Van De Wyngard and 10:28 over 4th place finisher Chacon.

Ironman 70.3 Costa Rica
Playa del Coco, Costa Rica
June 18, 2017
S 1.9k / B 87k / R 21k

Results

Pro Women

1. Leanda Cave (GBR) 4:13:20
2. Lauren Goss (USA) 4:18:59
3. Dede Griesbauer (USA) 4:25:20
4. Pamela Tastets (CHL) 4:31:45
5. Kelly O’Mara (USA) 4:32:15
6. Sarah Cameto (USA) 4:39:54

Pro Men

1. Kevin Collington (USA) 3:43:21
2. Carlos Quinchara Forero (COL) 3:47:58
3. Felipe Van de Wyngard (CHL) 3:49:44
4. Leonardo Chacon (CRI) 3:53:49
5. Steven McKenna (AUS) 4:01:51