Ritchie Nicholls of Great Britain and Eva Wutti of Austria employed race-best runs to take top honors against strong fields at Ironman 70.3 Haugesund.

Nicholls combined a race-fastest 24:05 swim, 8th-best 2:15:08 bike split and a dominating 1:09:15 run to come back from a 6:01 deficit at T2. Nicholls finished in 3:52:03 with a safe margin of victory over überbiker Markus Thomschke of Germany and a kilometer over 3rd place finisher Paul Reitmayr of Austria.

Coming off an impressive sub-9 hours winning effort at Ironman Austria last week, Wutti combined a women’s 4th-fastest 26:58 swim, women’s 3rd-best 2:26:04 bike split and a blazing 1:19:29 run to finish in 4:15:32 with a 3:21 margin over defending champion Susie Cheetham of Great Britain. Radka Vodickova of the Czech Republic took 3rd, 6:06 back of the winner.

Men

Nicholls led the swim in 24:05, 2 seconds ahead of Brad Kahlefeldt of Australia and Will Clarke of Great Britain, 3 seconds ahead of Tomas Renc of the Czech Republic and Mike Aigroz of Switzerland, 4 seconds ahead of Paul Reitmayr of Austria and Alexander Schilling of Germany and 7 seconds on Alan Steen Olesen of Denmark. Markus Thomschke of Germany, a dangerously fast cyclist, emerged 10th with an easily eraseable 34 seconds deficit.

By the 50 kilometer mark, Thomschke took a 42 seconds lead on Olesen while the rest of the field were more than a kilometer back. Kahlefeldt trailed by 3:57, Aigroz by 3:58, Nicholls by 3:59, Reitmayr by 4:01, while former ITU Olympic distance star Clarke was fading back to 9th, 5:49 arrears. After a dominating 2:08:25 bike split, Thomschke arrived at T2 with a 3:31 lead on Olesen, 5:17 on Gudmund Snilstveit of Norway, 5:58 on Aigroz, 5:59 on Sebastian Neef of Germany and 6:01 on Nicholls.

Nicholls made up 2 minutes on Thomschke in the first 4km, trailed by 1:54 halfway through the 21km run, and passed Thomschke with a few kilometers to go. After his stellar race-best run, Nicholls finished with a 1:21 margin over runner-up Thomschke, who ran a 5th-best 1:16:23 to hold off Reitmayr’s 2nd-best 1:13:39 run by a 3:05 margin.

Women

Vodickova led the women with a 24:40 swim, just 35 seconds slower than men’s leader Richie Nicholls. Norwegians Moe Mette and Kari Lingsom trailed by 1:03 and 1:47, while top contenders Wutti and Cheetham were next with 2:18 and 2:26 deficits.

By 50km, Wutti took the lead, followed closely by Cheetham, Vodickova and Moe. By 70km, Cheetham led the pack of four, with Asa Lundstrom of Sweden 55 seconds back.

After a women’s-best 2:23:38 bike split, Lundstrom had made up for her 29:23 swim and led at T2 with Cheetham and Wutti close behind. Vodickova (+21 seconds) and Moe (+43s) were 4th and 5th.

In the first 2km, Wutti took a 21 seconds gap on Cheetham and by 10.5 km increased her lead on Cheetham to 1:48 and 2:28 on Vodickova. By the end of her race-best run, Wutti finished in 4:15:32 with a 3:21 margin on Cheetham and 6:06 on 3rd-place finisher Vodickova.

Ironman 70.3 Haugesund
Haugesund, Norway
July 5, 2015
S 1.2mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.,

Results

Men

1. Ritchie Nicholls (GBR) 3:52:03
2. Markus Thomschke (GER) 3:53:24
3. Paul Reitmayr (AUT) 3:56:29
4. Gudmund Snilstveit (NOR) 3:58:16
5. Alan Steen Olesen (DEN) 3:58:58
6. Mike Aigroz (SUI) 3:59:25
7. Kirill Kotsegarov (EST) 4:01:23
8. Sebastian Neef (GER) 4:02:35
9. Alexander Schilling (GER) 4:07:13
10. Lars Petter Stormo (NOR) 4:08:24 * M35-39

Women

1. Eva Wutti (AUT) 4:15:32
2. Susie Cheetham (GBR) 4:18:53
3. Radka Vodickova (CZE) 4:21”38
4. Asa Lundstrom (SWE) 4:22:10
5. Sofie Goos (BEL) 4:22:37
6. Mette Moe (NOR) 4:22:37
7. Maja Nielsen (DEN) 4:28:19
8. Kimberley Morrison (GBR) 4:30:30 *F25-29
9. Caroline Livesey (GBR) 4:34:08
10. Anna Halasz (HUN) 4:37:01