Andy Potts and Jenny Fletcher won the men’s and women’s overall titles at Ironman 70.3 Branson Sunday in Missouri.

The Men

Potts posted the fastest swim (22:55), bike split (2:24:52) and run (1:14:41) to finish the tough Branson course in 4:04:23 with a 4 minutes margin of victory over runner-up Ben Hoffman, the two-time defending Branson 70.3 champion, and 8:15 better than 3rd-place finisher Mario De Elias of Argentina.

Matthew Pellow was 8:58 back of Potts in 4th and John Polson was 10:04 back of Potts in 5th place.

Potts emerged from the swim with a 2:29 lead over Australian John Polson, 2:32 over Australian Matthew Pellow, 2:39 over New Zealander Guy Crawford, 2:44 over U.S. star Ben Hoffman, 2:45 over Matthew Taylor of Colorado and 2:46 over Mario De Elias of Argentina.

After his race-fastest bike split, Potts increased his lead to 3:27 over Hoffman, 4:11 over Pellow, and roughly 8 minutes and 15 seconds over De Elias, Polson, and Crawford.

Potts’ 1:14:41 run was 33 seconds better than Hoffman, 3 seconds better than De Elias and 4:47 quicker than Pellow and 1:51 better than Polson.

The Women

Joanna Addler led the women out of the swim in 22:29 which put her 3:41 ahead of Tami Ritchie, 4:41 ahead of Jenny Fletcher and 4:47 ahead of Nina Kraft-Johnson.

After her race-fastest 2:54:12 bike split, Fletcher led into T2 by a 5:47 over Kraft-Johnson, 6:13 over Addler, 13:40 over Caroline Gregory and 17:22 over Tami Ritchie.

Fletcher ran a 4th-fastest women’s half marathon in 1:34:10, which was enough to hold off Kraft-Johnson’s race-best 1:28:54 run by 30 seconds. Gregory’s 2nd-fastest 1:30:05 moved her to 3rd place, and Ritchie’s 3rd-best 1:30:49 run advanced her to 4th place woman at the finish.

Fletcher, who is coached by Siri Lindley, thus earned her first big professional win.

Ironman 70.3 Branson
Branson, Missouri
September 23, 2012
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

1. Andy Potts (USA) 4:04:23
2. Ben Hoffman (USA) 4:08:23
3. Mario De Elias (ARG) 4:12:38
4. Matthew Pellow (AUS) 4:13:21
5. John Polson (AUS) 4:14:27
6. Guy Crawford (NZL) 4:19:39
7. Chris Ganter (USA) 4:26:26
8. Matt Taylor (USA) 4:28:46
9. Jim Lubinski (USA) 4:32:38
10. Brad Seng (USA) 4:34:37

Women

1. Jenny Fletcher (USA) 4:57:03
2. Nina Kraft-Johnson (USA) 4:57:33
3. Caroline Gregory (USA) 5:06:38
4. Tami Ritchie (USA) 5:11:04
5. Joanna Addler (USA) 5:12:55