Ezequiel Morales of Argentina and Sophie Goos of Belgium won their second Ironman titles Sunday at Ironman Brazil in Florianopolis.
Morales won his first Ironman at Wisconsin in 2011 and Goos won her first Ironman title at Florida in 2009.
Morales, 37, trailed five men after the bike, then uncorked a race-best 2:57:49 marathon to pass leader Santiago Ascenco with 4 kilometers to go. Morales hit the finish in 8:22:40 with a 2:51 margin of victory over Ascenco, who could only manage a 3:10:36 marathon after his race-fastest 4:26:51 bike. Igor Amorelli of Brazil combined a 3rd-fastest 44:17 swim, 9th-best 4:34:38 bike split and 3rd-best 3:09:01 marathon to take 3rd place, 2:25 back of Ascenco.
Goos, 32, combined a 52:42 swim, a race-fastest 4:59:24 bike and a 3:25:36 run for an overall finish of 9:17:42 and a 3:08 margin of victory over fast-closing Kim Loeffler of the United States. Loeffler trailed by 13:29 after a 1:03:14 swim, and a 5:02:21 bike then turned on the jets with a women's race-fastest 3:15:15 marathon to hit the finish 2 minutes 59 seconds in front of 3rd-place finisher Vanessa Gianinni of Brazil.
Hillary Biscay of the United States led the swim with a race-best 50:01 split and was second into T2 after a 4th-best 5:04:20 bike split. But she fell to 6th after a 3:50:40 run that left her 27:19 back of the winner at the finish.
Ironman Brazil
May 27, 2012
Florianopolis, Brazil
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.
Results
Men
1. Ezequiel Morales (ARG) 8:22:40
2, Santiago Ascenco (BRA) 8:25:31
3. Igor Amorelli (BRA) 8:27:56
4. Guilherme Valenza Manocchio (BRA) 8:29:35
5. Lucas Cocha (ARG) 8:30:33
6. Raul Furtado (BRA) 8:32:27
7. Eduardo Sturla (ARG) 8:36:55
8. Mario de Elias (ARG) 8:41:02
9. Andrey Lyatskiy (RUS) 8:45:16
10. Luiz Francisco de Paiva Ferreira (BRA)
11. Oscar Galindez (BRA) 8:46:11
Women
1. Sofie Goos (BEL) 9:17:42
2. Kim Loeffler (USA) 9:20:50
3. Vanessa Gianinni (BRA) 9:23:49
4. Sara Gross (CAN) 9:35:08
5. Ariane Gomes Monticeli Da Silveira (BRA) 9:39:35
6. Hillary Biscay (USA) 9:45:01
7. Maki Nishiuchi (JPN) 9:52:56
8. Mariana Borges de Andrade (BRA) 9:55:22
9. Ana Lidia Borbe (BRA) 10:12:26
10. Alessandra Rocio de Carvalho 10:22:41
