We bring you late August triathlon action spanning the globe from Budapest to Bintan, Hokkaido to Kaiserwinkl, and a little long course Danish in Kobenhavn.

Terenzo Bozzone and Eimear Mullan win Ironman 70.3 Budapest

Eimear Mullan of Ireland and Terenzo Bozzone of New Zealand won decisive victories at Ironman 70.3 Budapest on Saturday.

Mullan overcame a 2:28 deficit to top swimmer Vanessa Raw with a women's-best 2:23:21 bike split and by-far-fastest 1:18:54 run to finish in 4:15:46. This gave her a 3:40 margin over Vanessa Raw and 9:03 on 3rd-place finisher Judith Vaquera of Spain.

Bozzone won it on the bike with a by-far-best 2:04:20 split that was 6 minutes better than his closest pursuers. He bookended that stellar effort with a 4th-best 24:03 swim and a 5th-fastest 1:14:57 run that brought him to the line in 3:46:56 with a 5:20 margin of victory over runner-up Alberto Casadei of Italy. Bozzone finished 6:48 better than 3rd place finisher Matt Trautman of South Africa, who closed with a sizzling, race-best 1:09:50 half marathon that vaulted him from an 11-minutes deficit, outside the top 10 at T2, to the final spot on the podium.


Ironman 70.3 Budapest
Budapest, Hungary
August 22, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Women

1. Eimear Mullan (IRL) 4:15:46
2. Vanessa Raw (GBR) 4:19:26
3. Judith Vaquera (ESP) 4:24:49
4. Lisi Gruber (AUT) 4:26:15
5. Alena Stevens (SVK) 4:27:05

Men

1. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) 3:46:56
2. Albert Casadei (ITA) 3:52:16
3. Matt Trautman (RSA) 3:53:44
4. Dávid Hankó (HUN) 3:55:23
5. Maxim Kriat (UKR) 3:56:40

Shiao-Yu Li of Taiwan three-peats and Swen Sundberg wins his first Ironman Japan

Shiao-Yu Li of Taiwan overcame a 16:25 deficit after the swim and a 19:34 debit after the bike leg with a killer 3:08:53 marathon that was 30 minutes faster than her closest rivals. After a punishing, hilly bike leg and sweltering hot run, Li’s 10:22:59 finish gave her an 11 minutes margin over Hawaii’s Bree Wee and a 22:07 advantage over 3rd-place finisher Emi Sakai of Japan. Notably, Li’s run split was faster than all but one male pro – Patrick Evoe’s 3:08:29. The victory was Li’s third in a row at Hokkaido and its challenging bike course, which features 3,300 feet of climbing.

Wee was thrashed but exultant after her runner-up finish: “Wow that was challenging. Just crazy. But I want to come back and race next year!”

Swen Sundberg of Germany surrendered 2:58 to New Zealander Simon Cochrane’s race-best 51:55 swim split, then took over the lead approximately halfway through the bike leg on his way to a race-best 5:09:58 split. This was 4 minutes faster than the next-best effort of Yu Shinozaki of Japan. After Sundberg and Shinozaki arrived at the 145km mark together, Sundberg drew away to a 6:22 lead on Shinozaki, 8:54 lead on Patrick Evoe, and 11:39 advantage on Simon Cochrane at T2.

Evoe’s race-best 3:08:29 run brought him past Shinozaki at 15km and cut 1:37 from Sundberg’s lead. But by the end Sundberg’s 9:22:56 finish gave him a 5:18 margin on Evoe and 9 minutes on 3rd-place finisher Cochrane.

Cochrane, who also ran by Shinozaki on his way to 3rd place with a 3:09:08 marathon split, enjoyed Hokkaido’s rugged charm: “I have raced all the tough cycle courses including Ironman Lanzarote, and this is definitely the most challenging I have done. It was beautiful out there.”

Ironman Japan
Hokkaido, Japan
August 23, 2015
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Women

1. Shiao-Yu Li (TWN) 10:22:59
2. Bree Wee (USA) 10:33:59
3. Emi Sakai (JPN) 10:45:06
4. Airi Sawada (JPN) 10:56:04
5. Michelle Duffield (AUS) 11:03:27

Men

1. Swen Sundberg (GER) 9:22:56
2. Patrick Evoe (USA) 9:28:13
3. Simon Cochrane (NZL) 9:31:55
4. Yu Shinozaki (JPN) 9:49:56
5. Jacob Wissum (DEN) 9:53:42 *M35-39

Simone Brändli and Giulio Molinari win Challenge Walchee-Kaiserwinkl

Simone Brändli of Switzerland broke away from a 4-woman duel with Lucy Gossage, Yvonne Van Vlerken, and Daniela Sämmler through the swim and bike with a race-best 1:20:30 run. Her run provided virtually all of her 7:23 winning margin over Gossage and 10:59 advantage over 3rd-place finisher and four-time Challenge Walchsee winner Van Vlerken. Sämmler took 4th, 15:28 behind the winner.

Molinari’s rocket-rapid 2:03:52 bike split - 7 minutes better than his next-fastest rivals - blew away the field and provided enough cushion that his 6th-best 1:19:51 run left him with a 4:37 winning margin on Andreas Giglmayr of Austria, who posted the day’s fastest 1:15:39 run split, and 5:37 on 3rd-place finisher Per Bittner of Germany.

Tyrol Challenge Walchee-Kaiserwinkl
Walchsee, Austria
August 23, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Women

1. Simone Brändli (SUI) 4:17:56
2. Lucy Gossage (GBR) 4:25:19
3. Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) 4:28:55
4. Daniela Sämmler (GER) 4:33:24
5. Marina Damlaimcourt (ESP) 4:35:29

Men

1. Giulio Molinari (ITA) 3:49:40
2. Andreas Giglmayr (AUT) 3:54:17
3. Per Bittner (GER) 3:55:17
4. Nick Kastelein (AUS) 3:56:14
5. Paul Schuster (GER) 3:57:01

Michelle Vesterby of Denmark and Guilherme Manocchio of Brazil win Copenhagen

Michelle Vesterby of Denmark and Guilherme Manocchio of Brazil won top honors on a rare, perfectly sunny late summer day at Ironman Copenhagen.

Vesterby broke the 9-hour mark by 11 seconds with women's-best swim and bike splits that gave her a 3:18 margin of victory over Sofie Goos of Belgium and 8:54 over 3rd-place finisher Sonja Tajsich of Germany.

Manocchio used a 2nd-best 2:54:15 marathon to power away from a closely fought swim-bike duel with Denmark’s Henrik Hyldelund and finish in 8:14:56 with a 6:55 advantage.

In an impressive performance, 47-year-old Andreas Niedrig of Germany sped to a 6:14 lead after the swim and bike legs before fading on the run to a 3rd-place finish, 5:46 behind Hyldelund.

Ironman Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark
August 23, 2015
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Women

1. Michelle Vesterby (DEN) 8:59:49
2. Sofie Goos (BEL) 9:03:07
3. Sonja Tajsich (GER) 9:08:43
4. Regula Rohrbach (SUI) 9:38:07
5. Lucie Zelenkova (CZE) 9:39:43

Men

1. Guilherme Manocchio (BRA) 8:14:56
2. Henrik Hyldelund (DEN) 8:21:51
3. Andreas Niedrig (GER) 8:27:37
4. Mike Schifferle (SUI) 8:27:57
5. Jan Raphael (GER) 8:31:50

Brad Kahlefeldt and Gina Crawford top Bintan 70.3

Two-time Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt broke out front on the swim, then dropped to a 40-seconds deficit to Thailand-based Frederik Croneborg of Sweden after the bike leg. Within the first 7 kilometers of the 3-loop 21km run, Kahlefeldt and Mike Phillips of New Zealand dispatched Croneborg. Then Kahlefeldt’s heat-resistant conditioning allowed him to withstand the high-90s heat and energy-sapping Indonesian humidity to finish in 3:55:31 with a 4:37 margin on Phillips and 7:08 on 3rd-place finisher Croneborg.

Gina Crawford of New Zealand hit the beach even with U.S. competitor Laurel Wassner after a women’s-best swim that gave them a 90 seconds lead on Caitlin Snow of the U.S. and Katey Gibb of Australia.

Crawford, who won this race last year in its previous full distance incarnation as MetaMan, dropped Wassner and unleashed a women’s-best bike split that brought her into T2 with a 3 minutes lead on Gibb and Snow.

Crawford looked strong on the first lap of the run, but Gibb cut Crawford’s lead. On the second lap, Gibb faded and Snow failed to take down the New Zealander’s lead. Despite a women’s-best run, Snow fell 1:43 short of the victory while Gibb held on for 3rd.

Ironman 70.3 Bintan
Bintan, Indonesia
August 23, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 3:55:31
2. Mike Phillips (NZL) 4:00:18
3. Frederik Croneborg (SWE) 4:02:39
4. Timo Bracht (GER) 4:04:58
5. Lachlan Kerin (AUS) 4:11:59

Women

1. Gina Crawford (NZL) 4:25:19
2. Caitlin Snow (USA) 4:27:02
3. Katey Gibb (AUS) 4:30:03
4. Laurel Wassner (USA) 4:38:36
5. Candice Hammond (NZL) 4:39:26