Ruedi Wild of Switzerland won his second straight Ironman 70.3 and Barbara Riveros of Chile won her fourth career 70.3 title and her first at Ironman 70.3 Taiwan.
Men
Wild and Timothy O’Donnell matched swim splits (22:55 and 22:47) and bike splits (2:00:06 and 2:00:24) to carve out a one minute lead at T2 over 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Sven Riederer of Switzerland and two-time Ironman 70.3 World champion Michael Raelert of Germany.
Wild and O’Donnell ran together for the first 3k before Wild took an 11 seconds lead at 6.3k, putting 2 minutes on Riederer and 5:40 on Raelert. By 9km, Wild made a definitive move and Donnell could not answer, falling 30 seconds back.
After a race-best 1:14:32 half marathon, Wild finished in 3:42:55 with a 2:36 margin of victory over O’Donnell (1:17:13 run), 6:14 over 3rd-place Riederer (1:19:51 run), and 10:25 ahead of 4th place Fredrik Croneborg of Sweden (1:15:25 run). Raelert fell out of the top 10, Tim Van Berkel of Australia moved up to 5th, and Kaito Tohara of Japan took 6th with a tied-for-second-best 1:15:25 run.
The victory continues a 2017 hot streak for Wild, who finished 3rd at Ironman 70.3 Dubai and 1st at Ironman 70.3 Subic Bay last week.
Women
Mariya Shorets of Russia and Radka Kahlefeldt of the Czech Republic led the women's swim with identical 25:18 splits, giving them a 4 seconds lead on Barbara Riveros, 2:34 on Kate Bevilaqua of Australia, 4:32 on Annelise Jeffries of Australia, 4:57 on Taiwan favorite Shiao-Yu Li, and 9 minutes on Anna Eberhardt of Hungary.
After 30km of the bike leg, Kahlefeldt and Riveros rode away to a 52 seconds lead on Shorets, 4:52 on Bevilaqua and 10 minutes on Li. After 71km, Riveros and Kahlefeldt increased their lead to 4:25 over Shorets, 5 minutes on Bevilaqua, 10 minutes on Eberhardt, 10:31 to Annelise Jeffries of Australia and 17 minutes on Emi Sakai of Japan.
After 2:20:39 and 2:20:43 bike splits, Riveros and Kahlefeldt began the run with a 6 and a half minute lead on Shorets, 7 minutes on Bevilaqua, 10 minutes on Eberhardt and 12 minutes on Jeffries. Within the first 3.1km, Riveros opened up a 1 minute gap on Kahlefeldt and never looked back. After a women’s-best 1:21:45 run, Riveros finished in 4:13:22 with a 3:44 margin of victory over Kahlefeldt (1:25:28 run) and 6:19 over 3rd-place Shorets, who ran a women’s next-best 1:21:50 half marathon.
The victory was Riveros’ fifth at the 70.3 distance. Previously Rivers won three 70.3 titles in Pucon, Chile and one at the 2013 edition of Ironman 70.3 Berlin.
Kahlefeldt fell short of a second straight 70.3 win as she won at Subic Bay last weekend.
Ironman 70.3 Taiwan
Taitung, Taiwan
March 19, 2017
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Elite Men
1. Ruedi Wild (SUI) 3:42:55
2. Timothy O’Donnell (USA) 3:45:31
3. Sven Riederer (SUI) 3:49:09
4. Fredrik Croneborg (SWE) 3:53:20
5. Tim Van Berkel (AUS) 3:55:01
6. Kaito Tohara (JPN) 3:55:22
7. Ritchie Nicholls (GBR) 3:58:06
8. Gergo Badar (HUN) 3:59:48
9. Kevin Collington (USA) 4:04:11
10. Johannes Moldan (GER) 4:05:00
Elite Women
1. Barbara Riveros (CHL) 4:13:22
2. Radka Kahlefeldt (CZE) 4:17:05
3. Mariya Shorets (RUS) 4:19:41
4. Anna Eberhardt (HUN) 4:30:33
5. Kate Bevilaqua (AUS) 4:37:54
6. Annelise Jeffries (AUS) 4:40:20
7. Emi Sakai (JPN) 4:51:36
