Sanders, Chura win Buenos Aires 70.3

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Sanders overcame his usual large swim deficit of 3:16 with race-best splits on the bike (1:59:27) and run (1:13:10) to finish in 3:42:47 with a 3:28 margin of victory over Rodolphe Von Berg of the U.S. and 4:05 over 3rd place Igor Amorelli of Brazil.

Chura opened a 2:44 lead with a women’s-best 25:37 swim and then surrendered 9:07 to Great Britain’s Kimberley Morrison who clocked an impressive 2:16:38 bike split that gave her a 6:38 lead at T2. On her way to a race-best run, Chura passed Morrison in the final miles to take the win by less than a minute.

Men

Italian-born Rodolphe Von Berg, now racing for the U.S., led the swim in 24:03 which gave him a 4 seconds lead on Marcus Fernandes of Brazil, 31 seconds on top contender Igor Amorelli of Brazil, 44 seconds on Reinaldo Colucci of Brazil, 1:20 on Leon Griffin of Australia, 1:26 on Ben Hoffman of the U.S., 1:34 to 1:36 on Eneko Llanos of Spain and Guilherme Manocchio of Brazil, 2:42 on Santiago Ascenco of Brazil, and 3:16 on Sanders.

Halfway through the 90 kilometer bike leg, Sanders charged to the top, creating a 2 seconds lead on Amorelli, 4 seconds on Fernandes, 11 seconds on Von Berg, 1:10 on Hoffman, 1:49 on Ascenco, 1:54 on Colucci, 1:56 on Manocchio, and 1:59 on Griffin. There was no report on why multiple Ironman and 70.3 champion Eneko Llanos was lagging 5:37 arrears.

By 60km, Sanders and Amorelli broke away to a 1:19 lead on Von Berg, 2:15 on Hoffman and 3:30 on a quartet including Luciano Taccone of Argentina, Griffin, Colucci and Fellipe Santos of Brazil. After race-best 1:59:27 and 2:01:40 bike splits, Sanders and Amorelli entered T2 together with a 3:04 lead on Von Berg, 3:59 on Hoffman, 4:40 on Fernandes and 5:45 on Ascenco and Colucci.

By 7km of the run, Sanders opened a 1:48 lead on Amorelli, 4:39 on Von Berg and 5:42 on Hoffman. By 11km, Sanders had a 3:07 lead on Amorelli, 5:08 on Von Berg and just over 6 minutes on Colucci and Hoffman.

After a race-best 1:13:10 run, Sanders finished with a 3:28 margin of victory over Von Berg (4th-best 1:13:47 run) and 4:05 on 3rd-place Amorelli (1:17:21 run). After losing ground with a 2:07:28 bike split, Colucci held 4th with a 3rd-fastest 1:13:29 run.

Sanders’ victory was his 15th at the 70.3 distance and his 2nd in 2017 after a dominating performance in January at Ironman 70.3 Pucon. Sanders also has four Ironman victories including an Ironman brand world record time of 7:44:29 at Ironman Arizona last November.

Women
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