Jan Van Berkel won his first Ironman with a strong, come-from-behind run and Kaisa Sali overcame a deficit on the swim with a strong bike and run to win Ironman Switzerland by comfortable margins.

Van Berkel combined a race-best 50:25 swim, a 6th-best 4:29:50 bike split and a by-far race-best 2:45:18 marathon to finish in a course-record 8:09:18 time that gave him a 4:09 margin of victory over David Plese of Slovenia and 4:55 over 3rd place bike star Cameron Wurf of Australia.

Home country favorite Ronnie Schildknecht fell out of contention for a record-extending 10th Ironman Switzerland win with a swim that was 4:30 behind the leader and a bike split that left him 15 minutes off the pace. Schildknecht finished with a 2nd-best 2:51:31 run split that left him 12:34 behind the winner.

Sali started with a women’s 3rd-best 57:20 swim, rocketed to a 1:39 lead at T2 with a women’s -fastest 4:53:59 bike split, then cinched the deal with a 2nd-quickest 3:08:42 marathon which brought her to the finish in 9:06:01 with an 8:35 margin of victory over Skye Moench of the U.S. and 10:54 over 3rd-place Annabel Luxford of Australia.

Men

Van Berkel led the swim with a 50:25 split that gave him a 1 to 8 seconds lead on a pack which included Balasz Csoke of Hungary, Johann Ackermann of Germany, Jeremy Jurkiewicz of France, Daniel Besse of Switzerland, Mike Phillips of New Zealand and Sven Riederer of Switzerland. Further back were David Plese of Slovenia (+1:19), Cameron Wurf of Australia (+4:08) and Schildknecht (+4:30).

Halfway through the 180 kilometer bike leg, Phillips, Jurkiewicz, Riederer and Van Berkel broke into a lead pack with a 1:33 lead on Plese and Ackermann, 2:34 on Wurf, and 7:10 on Schildknecht. After a race record 4:14:54 bike split, Wurf grabbed a 23 seconds lead on Plese, 8:50 on Jurkiewicz, 8:52 on Phillips, 8:54 on Van Berkel, and 8:57 on Riederer.

Halfway through the marathon, Plese charged into a 3:28 lead on Wurf, 5:15 on Van Berkel, 6:39 on Riederer and 7:37 on Phillips. By 24 km, Van Berkel passed Wurf into 2nd place, and at 34 kilometers passed Plese for the lead. By 39 kilometers, Van Berkel had a 2 minutes lead on Plese.

After a race-best 2:45:18 marathon, Van Berkel finished in 8:09:18 with a 4:09 margin of victory over Plese (2:57:38 run) and 4:55 over Wurf (2:58:58 run split).

Women

Annabel Luxford of Australia led the women’s swim with a 55:12 split that gave her a 2:04 lead on Skye Moench of the U.S., 2:08 on Sali and a whopping 10:02 on strong cyclist-runner Lisa Roberts of the U.S.

Halfway through the bike leg, Sali surged and cut Luxford’s lead to 6 seconds with Moench 2:27 arrears, Nina Derron of Switzerland +4:29 and Martina Kunz of Switzerland +6:22.

After a women’s-best 4:53:59 bike split, Sali opened a 1:39 lead on Luxford (4:57:54 bike split), 2:46 on Moench, 12:32 on Kunz and 15:02 on Derron.

Luxford remained in close touch with Sali until Kilometer 21 when she dropped 31 seconds to the flying Finn and Moench hung 6:11 arrears. After a 2nd-best 3:08:42 .marathon, Sali finished in 9:06:01 with an 8:35 margin of victory over Moench (3:15:09 run) and 10:54 over 3rd-place finisher Luxford. Lisa Roberts of the U.S, finished 4th with a women's best 3:00:27 run that made up much of her 10 minutes deficit after the swim and closed to within 6:36 of 3rd place.

Ironman Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland
July 29, 2018
S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Jan Van Berkel (SUI) 8:09:18 S 50:25 T1 1:51 B 4:29:50 T2 1:56 R 2:45:18
2. David Plese (SLO) 8:13:27 S 51:44 T1 2:47 B 4:19:04 T2 2:16 R 2:57:38
3. Cameron Wurf (AUS) 8:14:13 S 56:11 T1 2:09 B 4:14:54 T2 2:06 R 2:58:58
4. Mike Phillips (NZL) 8:17:36 S 50:30 T1 1:49 B 4:29:46 T2 2:08 R 2:53:26
5. Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) 8:21:52 S N/A T1 N/A B N/A T2 N/A T2 R 2:51:31

Women

1. Kaisa Sali (FIN) 9:06:01 S 57:20 T1 2:46 B 4:53:59 T2 3:17 R 3:08:42
2. Skye Moench (USA) 9:14:36 S 57:16 T1 2:24 B 4:57:11 T2 2:38 R 3:15:09
3. Annabel Luxford (AUS) 9:16:55 S 55:12 T1 2:37 B 4:57:54 T2 2:39 R 3:18:34
4. Lisa Roberts (USA) 9:23:31 S 1:05:11 T1 2:41 B 5:12:05 T2 3:10 R 3:00:27
5. Elisabeth Gruber (AUT) 9:28:25 S 1:05:43 T1 2:10 B 5:01:19 T2 2:44 R 3:16:31