Joe Gambles of Australia and Ellie Salthouse of Australia won hotly contested elite men‘s and women‘s titles at Ironman 70.3 Boulder.

Gambles started with a 7th-best 24:58 swim in Boulder Reservoir that left him 50 seconds behind leading man Rafael Goncalves and 13 seconds behind Matt Chrabot, 9 seconds behind Sam Appleton and 8 seconds behind Rodolphe Von Berg.

Gambles then unleashed a 2nd-best 156:19 bike split on a likely shorter then 56 mile bike course and left him 2 seconds behind Matt Chabot (1:56:28 bike split), 34 seconds ahead of Sam Appleton, 40 seconds ahead of Von Berg, 2:04ahead of Mark Bowstead and 2:24 ahead of Chris Leiferman. And 2:42 ahead of Michael Weiss (race-best 1:55:20 bike split).

At the end of a 2nd-best 1:16:50 run split, Gambles finished in 3:41:37 with a 1:02 margin on runner-up Leiferman (race-best 1:15:40 run split), and 2:23 on 3rd-p;lace finisher Appleton (1:19:13 run) and 3:23 on 4th place finisher Von Berg (1:20:00 run).

Gamble previously won Boulder 70.3 in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. He was out of the country last year and this won his 5th straight attempt at this Rocky Mountain classic.

Women

With the exception of a brief pass by Jeanni Seymour near the end of the run, Ellie Salthouse of Australia won a near wire-to-wire victory.

Salthouse led the swim in 26:33, which gave her a 4 seconds margin on Alicia Kaye , 1:46 on Katy Blakemore, 2:04 on Christen Brown and 2:54 on Lesley Smith.

After a women’s-best 2:11:33 bike split, Salthouse led Alicia Kaye (2:11:40 bike split) by 2 seconds, Jeannie Seymour (2:12:05 bike split) by 2:42, and Jocelyn McCauley by 7:55.

On her way to a 5th-best 1:29:49 run, Salthouse was briefly passed near the end of the run by Seymour (women’s-best 1:27:20 run). But Salthouse recouped and re-passed Seymour to finish in 4:11:43 with a 17 seconds margin on Seymour and 7:29 on 3rd-place finisher Les;ley Smith (1:27:49 run) and 9:46 on 4th place Alicia Kaye.

Ironman 70.3 Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
June 11, 2016
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Joe Gambles (AUS) 3:41:37
2. Chris Leiferman (USA) 3:42:39
3. Sam Appleton (AUS) 3:44:00
4. Rodolphe Von Berg (USA) 3:45:15
5. Matt Chabot (USA) 3:46:23
6. Michael Weiss (AUT) 3:46:56
7. Santiago Ascenco (BRA) 3:48:44
8. Mark Bowstead (NZL) 3:49:27
9. Steve Mantell (USA) 3:49:55
10. Jake Montgomery (USA) 3:52:27

Women

1. Ellie Salthouse (AUS) 4:11:43
2. Jeanni Seymour (RSA) 4:12:00
3. Lesley Smith (USA) 4:19:12
4. Alicia Kaye (USA) 4:21:29
5. Katy Blakemore (USA) 4:2158
6. Christen Brown (USA) 4:26:02
7. Uli Bromme (USA) 4:29:57
8. Ashley Paulson (USA) 4:30:52
9. Sarah Graves (USA ) 4:33:14
10. Bailey Hinz (USA) 4:34:52