Jan Frodeno ran down defending champion Brent McMahon to win the 2014 Ironman 70.3 St. George. Andy Potts who finished 5th grabbed the US Pro title. Meredith Kessler pulled away from Jodie Swallow to defend her title in Utah, but it was very challenging. Along the way Kessler bettered her finish time from last year by 6 minutes and retained the US Pro title.
The men
It was not too surprising to see Andy Potts coming out of the water first, and his 21:49 swim split bested Frodeno by a minute, McMahon by 1:02 seconds and Aussie swim ace Clayton Fettell by 1:03. The ITU guys showed off their transition skills and nabbed a few seconds right back, with McMahon now only being 45 seconds behind the leader.
After 10 miles on the bike Joe Gambles, Andrew Yoder, Ben Hoffman, Tim Reed and Bevan Docherty had virtually nullified that advantage and now the race for the title was starting to take shape. 10 miles later Yoder pulled into the lead and this fast young guy started to pull away. But Yoder was eventually reeled in. In the end the top 3 bike splits in St. George belonged to Michael Weiss, Sebastian Kienle and Yoder who managed to ride in the 2:07:33 to 2:07:40 range and Frodeno's bike split was just about 3 minutes slower. The German was actually not much on the radar during the bike segment, but everyone knew that he likely wasn't out of the picture.
"This was probably the toughest thing I've ever done. I couldn’t even hold my own on the bike," said Frodeno.
The leading men reached T2 in close proximity and among the leaders was Marino Vanhoenacker, but 70.3 World Champion Sebastian Kienle never managed to reach the front bunch.
Yoder led the men out of transition but Don pulled into the lead early on during the run with Gambles and McMahon in hot pursuit. At mile 2 the three front runners were still relatively close together, but Yoder had started to drift back. Gambles also was not able to keep pace with the former ITU Pros and soon it was just Don and McMahon in the lead. McMahon then moved ahead but now it was clear that Frodeno was coming fast from behind. At mile 7 of the run McMahon still had a 1 minute lead over Frodeno but just a few seconds over Tim Don, with Andy Potts just a few steps ahead of the German Olympic champion. But Frodeno was on a mission and slowly cut away time. At mile 11.5 he was within 18 seconds of the Canadian and soon after he had the lead. The German held off McMahon after that and took the win with a race best and inspiring 1:09:12 run, with McMahon second and Don rounding out the podium. The field however was very competitive and everyone in the top 10 stayed sub 3:50 on a very hard course.
"Thanks for all the support out there! This was the toughest and therefore sweetest yet," tweeted Frodeno.
The women
Meredith Kessler led the women out of the water in 24:14 but Jodie Swallow, Julie Dibens and Mary Beth Ellis were right there too. These 4 however managed to carve out an advantage of at least 2:30 over the rest of the competitors and that included Heather Wurtele and Linsey Corbin.
Dibens had the fastest bike split among the Pro women and her 2:22:15 bested fellow Brit Jodie Swallow by 9 seconds. Kessler likely would have had the fastest ride but had a stand down penalty late on the bike and that brought her back to the bike-run transition 41 seconds behind Swallow and Dibens. Mary Beth Ellis and Heather Wurtele had the next best bike splits with 2:23:13 and 2:23:41 respectively. The swim disadvantage of Wurtele however put her over 3 minutes behind the leaders.
Swallow charged into the lead early on, but Kessler reeled in Dibens and Swallow to take the lead. Swallow hung very tough but in the end Kessler proved to be just too strong. Kessler grabbed the win and the US Pro title, and Swallow had to settle for the runner-up place. The hard charging Heather Wurtele earned the final podium spot with a fine 1:20:37 run. Mary Beth Ellis finished fourth and Julie Dibens grabbed 5th place. Bek Keat who finished 6th had the fastest run among the Pro females with a 1:19:57 split.
Swallow later spoke high praise of her fellow competitors on the podium.
"The fields are getting stronger and stronger, but they're also getting nicer and nicer," said Swallow.
Ironman 70.3 St. George US Championships
St. George, Utah, USA / May 3, 2014
1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run
Top men
1. Jan Frodeno (GER) 3:45:21
2. Brent McMahon (CAN) 3:45:43
3. Tim Don (GBR) 3:45:50
4. Joe Gambles (AUS) 3:47:10
5. Andy Potts (USA) 3:47:33 *
6. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 3:48:39
7. Ben Hoffman (USA) 3:48:39
8. Kevin Collington (USA) 3:48:42
9. Bevan Docherty (NZL) 3:49:05
10. Sebastian Kienle (GER) 3:49:38
Top women
1. Meredith Kessler (USA) 4:11:53 *
2. Jodie Swallow (GBR) 4:12:29
3. Heather Wurtele (CAN) 4:14:31
4. Mary Beth Ellis (USA) 4:16:10
5. Julie Dibens (GBR) 4:23:21
6. Rebekah Keat (AUS) 4:25:22
7. Margie Shapiro (USA) 4:25:55
8. Sarah Piampiano (USA) 4:26:08
9. Ruth Morrey (USA) 4:28:00
10. Linsey Corbin (USA) 4:28:17
* = 2014 Ironman 70.3 US Pro Champion
