Nicola Spirig finished 2nd overall including the men and crushed a light women’s field at the Olympic distance Zurich 5i50. Ruedi Wild took the men’s title by 5:52.

After breaking her hand at WTS Abu Dhabi in March and undergoing surgery to repair three broken metacarpal bones, defending Olympic champion Nicola Spirig took a different path on her road to Rio. Instead of charging back into the World Triathlon Series after recovering from surgery, she raced three 70.3 events and won 2, set a 9:07 personal best at a 3,000 meters track event, and only today took on the Olympic distance.

As a test of her fitness for Rio, the Zurich 5i50 was a complete success. She cruised to the finish in 1:58:19, 9:55 ahead of women’s runner-up Ricarda Lisk of Germany and 12:19 ahead of 3rd-place Nina Derron of Switzerland. She also finished 2nd overall including the men – 5:41 behind men’s winner Ruedi Wild.

Spirig did not have to cope with the water polo-like violence of a typical WTS swim, but her 20:33 split for the 1500 meters was 5th overall including the men, 1 second faster than Wild and 1 second slower than the women’s best split by Michelle Derran.

Spirig’s 35:51 run split was just 1:12 slower than Wild’s men’s best mark and 3rd-best overall including the men.

Wild combined a 6th-fastest 20:34 swim, a race-best 54:41 bike split and race-best 34:39 run to finish in 1:52:38 with a 5:53 margin over runner-up Nils Svensson of Sweden and 6:57 over 3rd-place David Herzig of Switzerland.

5i50 Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
July 23, 2016
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Men

1. Ruedi Wild (SUI) 1:52:38
2. Nils Svensson (SWE) 1:58:30
3. David Herzig (SUI) 1:59:35 *M30-34
4. Jacques Louw (SUI) 2:00:38
5. Giacomo Trabattoni (SUI) 2:00:40 *M18-24

Women

1. Nicola Spirig (SUI) 1:58:19
2. Ricarda Lisk (GER) 2:08:14
3. Nina Derron (SUI) 2:10:38
4. Mariana Borges De Andrade (BRA) 2:11:16
5. Michelle Derran (SUI) 2:11:53