Bahrain Endurance Team teammates James Cunnama of South Africa and Caroline Steffen of Switzerland won Ironman 70.3 Vietnam with come-from-behind runs in Danang.

Cunnama fought back from a 2 minute deficit to Timothy Reed, Josh Amberger and Terenzo Bozzone after the bike leg with a race-best, dominant in the heat 1:17:57 run to finish in 3:51:29 with a 4:15 margin on Australian Timothy Reed and 5:38 on New Zealander Terenzo Bozzone.

Steffen prevailed after a race-long, ding-dong battle with Liz Blatchford of Great Britain in which Blatchford led by 8 seconds after the swim, Steffen led by 2 seconds after the bike leg. Whereupon Blatchford carved out a 31 seconds lead 15k through the run before heat wilted the Englishwoman and Steffen prevailed.

In an act of commendable charity, Steffen donated her $3,000 first prize money to Newborns Vietnam.

Men

Sam Betten of Australia led the swim in 22:52, followed 2 seconds later by fellow Aussies Josh Amberger and Clayton Fettell and 7 seconds later by Bozzone. Lurking 90 seconds later were Cunnama and Reed, with Cyril Viennot of France and Fredrik Croneborg of Sweden nearly 3 minutes arrears.

The bike leg was a shifting battle between men who were not fated to win the overall. At 16k, Amberger led Fettell by 1 second, with Betten 4 seconds down, Bozzone 5 back, Tim Reed 1:01 behind and Cunnama with 1:45 to make up.

After 35k, Reed took a turn at the front, with Amberger, Bozzone, Fettell, and Betten in a line, 1, 2, 3 and 4 seconds back. Cunnama, playing it cool on a hot day, was riding alone 2:18 behind. At 64k, Amberger led a legal pace line of Reed, Bozzone, Betten and Fettell with Cunnama and Cyril Viennot content to ride alone a couple of minutes back.

At the bike finish, the convoy was led by Bozzone, followed by Amberger, Reed, Betten and Fettell – all within 9 seconds - with Cunnama precisely 2 minutes behind and Viennot trailing the leaders by 2:45.

After 10k of the run, Cunnama had joined the party, just 1 seconds back of leader Tim Reed, with Bozzone 2:05 behind, Amberger 2:25 behind, Viennot 5:10 arrears and Betten 9:22 back and out of contention.

After 16k, Cunnama had firm control, leading Reed by 1:55, Bozzone by 4:06 and Amberger by 5:40.

Cunnama finished it off with a race-best 1:17:57 run – 5:46 better than Reed - which brought him to the line with a comfortable lead over Reed (3:55:44), Bozzone (3:57:07), Viennot (3:57:39) and Amberger (4:00:24).

Women

Blatchford led the swim with a 26:10 split, followed by Steffen (+8 seconds), Kathryn Haesner of New Zealand (+2:28) and Aussies Belinda Granger (+2:28), Dimity-Lee Duke (+3:08), Ange Castle (+7:02) and Stef Puszka (+8:26).

Locked in their duel, Blatchford and Steffen led at 35k in precisely the same time, 2:27 ahead of Granger, 5:09 ahead of Duke, and 9:45 ahead of Puszka. At T2, Blatchford led Steffen by 2 seconds, Granger by 3:16, Duke by 4:31, Kaesner by 5:34 and Puszka by 9:15.

Blatchford struck early on the run, but could only muster a 31 seconds lead on Steffen, who kept grinding away at a steady pace. With just 5k to go, Blatchford started to fade in the heat and soon the Swiss veteran maintained her own pace and strode past. At the finish, Steffen’s 1:28:33 run split, slower than usual but impressive in the steamy Vietnam atmosphere, was 2:09 better than Blatchford and gave Steffen her entire margin of victory.

Lee, after a 3rd-best 1:33:43 run, took 3rd, 9:30 back of the winner.

Ironman 70.3 Vietnam
Danang, Vietnam
May 10, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. James Cunnama (RSA) 3:51:29
2. Timothy Reed AUS) 3:55:44
3. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 3:57:07
4. Cyril Viennot (FRA) 3:57:39
5. Josh Amberger (AUS) 4:00:24
6. Fredrik Croneborg (SWE) 4:04:14
7. Sam Betten (AUS) 4:12:24
8. Olivier Godart (LUX) 4:15:19
9. Assad Attamimi (AUS) 4:18:57 *M40-44
10. Jeremy Morel (FRA) 4:23:41

Women

1. Caroline Steffen (SUI) 4:21:40
2. Liz Blatchford (GBR) 4:23:48
3. Dimity-Lee Duke (AUS) 4:31:10
4. Stef Puszka (AUS) 4:39:08
5. Ange Castle (AUS) 4:44:47
6. Belinda Granger (AUS) 4:47:32
7. Carole Fuchs (FRA) 4:47:58
8. Katrine Nielsen (DEN) 4:50:08
9. Janine Willis (CAN) 4:54:54 * F40-44
10. Emi Sakai (JPN) 5:02:48