Tim Don of Great Britain fought off his challengers on the run and Magali Tisseyre of Canada romped to a big margin with race-best bike and run splits to win Ironman 70.3 Monterrey.
Don combined a 6th-fastest swim, 6th-fastest bike leg and a race-best run to finish in 3:42:49 with a 3:15 margin over Kevin Collington of the U.S. and 3:26 over the 3rd-place finisher, 20-year-old XTERRA sensation Mauricio Mendez Cruz of Mexico.
Tisseyre seems to be all the way back to her 2009 and 2010 Ironman 70.3 World Championship bronze medal form with a smashing 10-minutes 15-seconds margin over Sarah Piampiano of the U.S. and 12:06 over 3rd-place finisher Angela Naeth of Canada.
Men
2005 Ironman World champion Faris Al-Sultan led the swim with a 23:02 split, followed by a pack of six men within 10 seconds, including Mendez Cruz, Balazs Csoke of Hungary, Collington, Drew Scott of the U.S., Don, and Christian Kemp of Australia. High potential threats Richie Cunningham of Australia (23:45) and Jordan Rapp of the U.S. (25:03) had more ground to make up.
After the bike leg, Don’s 6th-best 2:04:22 split ruled, followed by Kemp (+19s), Serrano (+20s), Collington (+35s), Al-Sultan (+40s), Mendez Cruz (+41s), Garza (+49s) Mikolaj Luft of Poland (+53s) and Cunningham (+1:04).
Halfway through the run, Mendez Cruz advanced to 2nd, 26 seconds back, with Collington (+1:09), Mario De Elias of Argentina (+2:00) and Cunningham (+2:02) next in line. Losing steam, Al-Sultan (+3:13) and Kemp (+3:23) were fading to 8th and 9th.
By the finish, Don’s race-best 1:12:34 run split added 2:25 to his margin on Collington’s 3rd-best effort and 2:42 on Mendez Cruz’s 4th-fastest 1:15:16 run. Cunningham took 4th, 36 seconds behind Mendez Cruz and De Elias took 5th, 24 seconds after Cunningham.
Scott DeFilippis of the U.S. finished 15th, closing with the day’s 2nd-best 1:13:46 run.
Women
As is her habit, Lauren Brandon of the U.S. led the swim in 23:41, 17 seconds ahead of fellow U.S. contender Lauren Goss, 1:48 ahead of Canadians Karen Thibodeau and Magali Tisseyre and well ahead of top challengers Carrie Lester of Australia (+2:47), Emma-Kate Lidbury of Great Britain (+3:04) and Sara Gross of Canada (+3:06).
After her race-best 2:12:03 bike split, Tisseyre led the field into T2, 2:36 ahead of Brandon, 7:29 up on Angela Naeth, 9:19 on Piampiano and Lidbury, and 12:07 ahead of Lester.
On her A-game, Tisseyre cruised home with a race-best 1:20:05 run to finish in a scalding-fast 4:00:48, a time zone ahead of Sarah Piampiano (4:11:03) and 3rd-place finisher Naeth, a renowned cyclist whose best 2-wheel effort on this day was 1:29 slower than Tisseyre.
Ironman 70.3 Monterrey
Monterrey, Mexico
March 15, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Tim Don (GBR) 3:42:49
2. Kevin Collington (USA) 3:46:04
3. Mauricio Mendez Cruz (MEX) 3:46:15
4. Richie Cunningham (AUS) 3:46:51
5. Mario De Elias (ARG) 3:47:15
6. Christian Kemp (AUS) 3:48:36
7. Faris Al-Sultan (GER) 3:49:24
8. Francisco Serrano (MEX) 3:49:50
9. Arturo Garza (MEX) 3:50:00
10. Raul Tejada (GTM) 3:50:22
Women
1. Magali Tisseyre (CAN) 4:00:48
2. Sarah Piampiano (USA) 4:11:03
3. Angela Naeth (CAN) 4:12:54
4. Emma-Kate Lidbury (GBR) 4:16:17
5. Carrie Lester (AUS) 4:20:50
6. Kirsty Jahn (CAN) 4:22:21
