In sweltering Malaysian heat, former pro cyclist Domenico Passuello of Italy dominated the men’s field and first year pro Emma Bilham of Switzerland used a sizzling fast bike split to leave the women behind at Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya.

Men

Josh Amberger swam 23:58 and led a tight three-man pack including Eric Watson of Bahrain (23:59) and Craig Alexander (24:02) with a 1 minute-plus gap on nearest chasers Tim Green of Australia (25:14) and Fredrik Croneborg of Sweden (25:43). Next up were a 4-man pack that included some dangerous runners - Viktor Zyemtsev of Ukraine (27:06), Derek Cross of Australia (27:21), David Plese of Slovenia (27:25) and Domenico Passuello of Italy (27:27).

While Amberger was seen as the first man into T2, he was not listed among the official bike leg finishers. After his indifferent swim, Domenico Passuello took charge with a dominating 2:06:16 bike split which brought him into T2 with a 4 minute lead on Alexander (2:13:35 bike split), 5 minutes on David Plese (2:11:52 bike split), 10 minutes on Croneborg (2:18:34 bike), and 11 minutes on Derek Cross (2:17:17 bike split). Watson dropped out of contention with a 2:26:48 bike split and Amberger fell off the board with so far unexplained woes.

Once the run began, Passuello quickly erased all doubts as he ran a race-best 1:21:52 in stifling heat that brought him to the line in 3:58:17 with a 9:22 margin over Alexander (1:29:09 run) and 11:56 over 3rd-place finisher Croneborg (1:23:03 run).

Women

Rebekah Keat of Australia led the pro women out of the swim (26:37), followed by Emma Bilham of Switzerland (+16 seconds), Amelia Watkinson of New Zealand (+17s), Irene Chong of Malaysia (+1:48), Kathryn Haesner of New Zealand (+1:56), Lynette Van der Merwe of South Africa (+2:47) and Katja Rabe of Germany (+3:15).

On the bike leg, there was a major shakeup as Emma Bilham unleashed a women's-best 2:22:16 bike split that gave her an 8 and a half minute lead on Parys Edwards, who passed a passel of women pros with her 2nd-best 2:24:21 split, 9 minutes on Katy Duffield of Australia (2:27:19 bike split) and 12 minutes on Keat, who must have encountered some unforeseen delays to account for her uncharacteristically slow 2:34:20 bike split.

Like men’s winner Passuello, Bilham kept an iron hold on her big lead at T2, finishing with a tied-for-women's-best 1:32:53 half marathon to finish in 4:24:48 with a 9:07 lead on Duffield (1:32:53 run) and 9:33 on 3rd-place finisher Edwards, who collapsed with heat exhaustion at the line. After her struggles on the bike leg, Rebekah Keat was not listed among the top 5 finishers at the time this article was posted.

Time Ironman 70.3 Putrajaya
Putrajaya, Malaysia
April 5, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Domenico Passuello (ITA) 3:58:17
2. Craig Alexander (AUS) 4:09:39
3. Fredrik Croneborg (SWE) 4:10:13
4. David Plese (SLV) 4:21:50
5. Assad Atamini (AUS) 4:22:37 * M40-44

Women

1. Emma Bilham (SUI) 4:24:48
2. Katy Duffield (AUS) 4:33:55
3. Parys Edwards (GBR) 4:34:21
4. Ange Castle (AUS) 4:39:29
5. Amelia Watkinson (NZL) 4:48:12