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Romain Guillaume of France topped Jens Petersen-Bach of Denmark by 3:51 and Diana Riesler surpassed fellow German Mareen Hufe by 8:22 to win Ironman Malaysia on a mild-for-Langkawi 82-degrees Fahrenheit day leavened by a light rain during the run.

In his first try at Malaysia, Guillaume combined a 2nd-best swim, race-best bike leg and 3rd-fastest run to earn his third career Ironman victory after wins at Mont Tremblant and Lanzarote.

Riesler combined a women’s 3rd–fastest swim, a dominating bike split and a women’s 3rd-quickest run to take her 4th straight victory at Langkawi.

Men

Balasz Csoke of Hungary led the swim in 48:00 which gave him a 5 seconds advantage on Guillaume, 8 seconds on Daniil Sapunov of Ukraine, 9 seconds on Christian Kramer of Germany, 2:29 on Philipp Koutny of Switzerland, and from 4:13 to 4:20 on Urs Müller of Switzerland, Frederik Croneborg of Sweden, Nicholas Baldwin of Seychelles, Roman Deisenhofer of Germany, and Jens Petersen-Bach of Denmark.

Guillaume quickly seized the lead and by 100km took a 4:27 advantage on Kramer, 5:02 on Sapunov, and 10:08 to 10:25 on a pack including Deisenhofer, Baldwin, Petersen-Bach, Müller, and Croneborg. After a 4:29:18 split – the only bike below 4:35 – Guillaume hit T2 with a 10:48 lead on Kramer, 10:55 on Deisenhofer, 15:22 on Petersen-Bach, 18:16 on Baldwin, and 23:05 on Sapunov.

Halfway through the marathon, Deisenhofer managed to whittle Guillaume’s lead to 7:11 and Kramer cut the gap to 8:07. Unfazed, Guillaume continued to maintain his 4:30 per kilometer pace throughout the run and closed with a 3rd-best 3:10:58 marathon to hold off Petersen-Bach’s race-best 3:00:01 run. Guillaume finished in 8:32:53 with a 3:51 margin on Petersen-Bach and 7:50 on 3rd-place Deisenhofer (3:08:16 run).

Women

Laurel Wassner of the U.S. led the women's swim in 55:30 which gave her a 1:28 lead on Saleta Castro Nogueira of Spain, 2:08 on Riesler, 2:13 on Mareen Hufe of Germany, 2:16 on Manon Genêt of France, and 7:44 on Parys Edwards of Great Britain.

By 13 kilometers into the ride, Riesler took a 150 meters lead on Wassner, 45 seconds on Hufe, 1:15 on Genêt and Nogueira, and 6:15 on Edwards. By 100km, Riesler held a 3 minutes lead on Hufe, 4:26 on Genêt, 10 minutes on Nogueira, and 11 minutes on Edwards.

After a women’s-fastest 4:57:48 bike split, Riesler arrived at T2 with a 7:44 lead on Hufe (5:05:20 bike split), 10:27 on Genêt, 21:12 on Edwards, and 22:07 on Nogueira.

Halfway through the marathon, Hufe was running 6 seconds per kilometer faster than Riesler and chopped her fellow German’s lead to under 7 minutes. After a women’s second-best 3:19:18 marathon, Riesler finished in 9:9:19:01 with an 8:22 margin of victory over Hufe (3:19:27 run) and 17:13 over 3rrd-place Genêt (3:26:33 run). After a women’s-best 3:16:26 marathon, Nogueira finished 4th, 2:22 behind Genêt.

Ironman Malaysia
Langkawi, Malaysia
November 11, 2017
S 2.4mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Romain Guillaume (FRA) 8:32:53 S 48:06 B 4:29:18 R 3:10:58
2. Jens Petersen-Bach (DEN) 8:36:44 S 52:21 B 4:40:17 R 3:00:01
3. Roman Deisenhofer (GER) 8:40:43 S 52:19 B 4:35:50 R 3:08:16
4. Christian Kramer (GER) 8::46:53 S 48:10 B 4:39:55 R 3:14:28
5. Nicholas Baldwin (SEY) 8:56:18 S 52:18 B 4:43:13 R 3:11:23
6. Michael Smith Larsen (DEN) 9:09:05 S 58:12 B 4:42:51 R 3:23:41
7. Urs Müller (SUI) 9:13:33 S 52:14 B 4:50:37 R 3:26:30

Women

1. Diana Riesler (GER) 9:19:01 S 57:39 B 4:57:48 R 3:19:18
2. Mareen Hufe (GER) 9:27:23 S 57:44 B 5:05:20 R 3:19:27
3. Manon Genêt (FRA) 9:36:14 S 57:47 B 5:08:00 R 3:26:33
4. Saleta Castro Nogueira (ESP) 9:38:36 S 56:59 B 5:20:24 R 3:16:26
5. Parys Edwards (GBR) 10:21:33 S 1:03:15 B 5:13:25 R 4:00:51
6. Shiao-Yu Li (TWN) 10:29:44 S 1:07:42 B 5:32:38 R 3:43:30
7. Laurel Wassner (USA) 10:40:45 S 55:31 B 5:32:41 R 4:07:18