The 2012 Olympic Triathlon silver medalist Lisa Norden of Sweden and Florian Angert of Germany took the elite titles at Jönköping 70.3.
Women
Lisa Norden showed was back in winning form in her current emphasis on middle distance racing with a come from behind, country victory at Jönköping 70.3 in Sweden.
Norden, who changed course from Olympic distance racing after a 16th at Rio, started with a 25:34 swim that gave her a 1 second lead on fellow Swede Mikaela Persson, 3 seconds on Kerry Morris of Australia, 4 seconds on Caris Dempster of Denmark, 5 seconds on Michaela Herlbauer of Austria, and 35 seconds on Kimberley Morrison of Great Britain.
After two-thirds of the 90km bike leg, the race shook out to a two-woman duel as Norden led Morrison by 29 seconds with Asa Lundström, Morris, Persson and Herlbauer between 5 and 8 minutes arrears.
After a women’s-best 2:16:41 bike split - 1:49 better than Norden, who just won the Swedish cycling time trial – Morrison hit T2 with a 1:06 lead on Norden and 6 to 12 minutes on outgunned competitors Lundstrom, Morris, Persson and Herlbauer.,
Through 7.5 kilometers of the run, Morrison maintained a 48 seconds lead on Norden, who whittled her deficit to 20 seconds with 5 kilometers to go. With 3.5 km to go of the 21.1 run course, Norden gathered her strength and took the lead.
After a women’s 3rd-best 1:29:17 half marathon, 2:49 better than Morrison, Norden finished in 4:18:17 with a 1:39 margin of victory over Morrison and 5:45 over 3rd place finisher Kerry Morris of Australia.
With ups and downs due to injuries in her efforts at the half Ironman distance, Norden has returned to the form she showed in her debut at the distance, a win at the 2013 Challenge Fuerteventura.
Men
Florian Angert of Germany came into this race in fine tune after a 4th at St. Polten 70.3 and 3rd at Challenge the Championship. Angert led the swim in 22:55, one second ahead of the man he would engage in a fierce duel to the end, Pieter Heemeryck of Belgium.
After 26.8 km of the bike leg, Heemeryck took a 7 seconds lead on Angert, 9 second son Nils Frommhold of Germany, 11 seconds on Max Neumann of Germany, 12 seconds on Christian Kramer of Germany and 53 to 58 seconds on Jesper Svensson of Sweden, Martijn Dekker of Netherlands, and Alessandro Degasperi of Italy.
After 64.5km, Angert, Heemeryck, Frommhold and Neumann broke out to a 1:30 to 1:41 lead on a pack of four chasers including Kramer, Marcus Herbst, Adrian Haller and Dekker.
After a race-best 2:07:51 bike split, Angert ;led into T2 by 5 seconds over Heemeryck and 1:09 to 1:12 on Frommhold and Neumann.
After 14.5 kilometers of the run leg, Heemeryck and Angert were running dead even with a 1:31 margin on Neumann and 4:33 on Marcus Herbst. Whereupon Angert gradually opened up a 20 seconds lead on Heemeryck with 500 hundred meters to go which he held to the finish.
Angert closed with a second-best 1:15:41 half marathon which propelled him to the line in 3:50:51 which gave him a 19 seconds margin of victory over Heemeryck and 1:40over 3rd place Neumann. Kieran Roche of Australia closed with the day’s fastest 1:15:36 run split to take 4th, 3:35 behind Neumann.
Ironman 70.3 Jönköping
Jönköping, Sweden
July 8, 2018
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Women
1. Lisa Norden (SWE) 4:18:17 S 25:34 T1 3:30 B 2:18:30 T2 1:28 R 1:29:17
2. Kimberley Morrison (GBR) 4:19:56 S 26:09 T1 3:38 B 2:16:41 T2 1:24 R 1:32:06
3. Kerry Morris (AUS) 4:24:02 S 25:37 T1 3:30 B 2:25:08 T2 1:30 R 1:28:21
4. Asa Lundstrom (SWE) 4:26:22 S 28:45 T1 3:38 B 2:20:12 T2 1:27 R 1:32:21
5. Michaela Herlbauer (AUT) 4:29:09 S 25:39 T1 3:28 B 2:29:32 T2 1:57 R 1:28:35
Men
1. Florian Angert (GER) 3:50:51 S 22:55 T1 3:10 B 2:07:51 T2 1:16 R 1:15:41
2. Pieter Heemeryck (BEL) 3:51:10 S 22:56 T1 3:02 B 2:08:03 T2 1:05 R 1:16:06
3. Max Neumann (AUS) 3:52:31 S 23”06 T1 3:28 B 2:08:33 T2 1:30 R 1:15:55
4. Kieran Roche (AUS) 3:56:06 S 23:13 T1 3:16 B 2:12:34 T2 1:29 R 1:15:36
5. Marcus Herbst (GER) 3:56:56 S 25:06 T1 2:56 B 2:08:06 T2 1:07 R 1:19:44
