Sam Long of the U.S. and Emma Pallant-Browne of Great Britain bested strong fields at Ironman 70.3 Boulder.

Long overcame a 3:55 deficit due to a 27th place swim with a smashing, race-best 1:54:50 bike split and a race-best 1:12:01 half marathon to finish in 3:37:35 with a 3:25 margin over fellow Sam Appleton of Australia and 5:30 over third place Collin Chartier of the U.S.

Long, a 25-year-old, 6-foot 4-inch Boulder native whose nickname The Big Unit is borrowed from Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson, just added to his stellar 2021 record which includes a course record win at Ironman Coeur d’Alene, a 2nd at Ironman 70.3 St. George and a 3rd at Texas 70.3.

Pallant-Browne combined a 6th-fastest 27:48 swim, women’s-best 2:11:59 bike split and women’s second-best 1:17:40 run split to finish in 3:59:54 with a 2:26 margin over recent U.S. Olympian Taylor Knibb and 2:38 over third-place finisher Jeanni Metzler of South Africa.

Pallant-Browne adds this win to her 2021 season which includes 3rd at St. George 70.3 and 1st at Florida 70.3.

Men

Sam Appleton jetted through the Boulder Reservoir 1.2-mile course in 24:40 which gave the Aussie a 50-seconds margin over second-best swimmer Martijn Ulloa of Chile, 43 seconds over Collin Chartier, 55 seconds over Justin Metzler, 58 seconds over Tyler Butterfield of Bermuda, and 3:55 over Long.

Halfway through the 56-mile bike course, Appleton maintained a 2:09 lead over the hard charging Long, 2:21 over Bradley Weiss of South Africa, 2:25 over Joe Gambles of Australia, 2:27 over Ulloa, 2:29 over Butterfield, 2:29 over Justin Metzler and 2:31 over Chartier.

After a by-far race-best 1:54:50 bike split, Long arrived at T2 with a 6 seconds margin over Appleton (second-best 1:58:32 bike split), 3:28 over Chartier, 4:34 over Butterfield, 4:38 over Metzler, 4:44 over Weiss, 4:49 over Ulloa, and 4:52 over Gambles.

Halfway through the half marathon, Long elongated his lead to 1:41 over Appleton, 5:04 over Chartier, 5:36 over Weiss, 6:12 over Metzler and 6:49 over Butterfield.

After a race-best 1:12:01 run, Long finished in 3:37:35 with a 3:25 lead over Appleton, 5:30 over third place Chartier and 6:38 over 4th place Weiss.

Women

Coming off her silver medal for her role on the U.S. team in the Olympic Mixed Relay Triathlon, Taylor Knibb led the women pros with a 26:05 swim that have her a 1 second lead over Pamella Oliveira of Brazil, 53 seconds over Sonja Catano, 57 seconds over Jeanni Metzler of South Africa, 1:39 over Meredith Kessler, 1:43 over Emma Pallant-Browne of Great Britain, 2:39 over Jocelyn McCauley, 2:49 over Skye Moench and 2:52 over Chelsea Sodaro.

Knibb maintained her lead over the field on the bike with a women’s-best 2:12:25 bike split which gave her a 1:09 lead over Metzler. 1:15 over Pallant-Browne 3:20 over Moench and 4:38 over Oliveira.

Pallant-Browne took over the lead by 10 seconds midway into the run, by 1:15 over Metzler 6:36 over Moench and 7:48 over Sodaro.

After a women’s second-best 1:17:40 half marathon, Pallant-Browne finished six seconds under four hours, 2:25 ahead of Knibb (1:21:40 run split) who held off Metzler for second place by 12 seconds. Moench took 4th, 9:48 behind the winner.

Ironman 70.3 Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
August 7, 2021
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mo.

Men

1. Sam Long (USA) S 28:35 B 1:54:50 R 1:12:01 TOT 3:37:35
2. Sam Appleton (AUS) S 24:40 B 1:58:32 R 1:15:15 TOT 3:41:00
3. Collin Chartier (USA) S 25:33 B 2:01:14 R 1:14:00 TOT 3:43:05
4. Bradley Weiss (RSA) S 25:55 B 2:02:05 R 1:13:48 TOT 3:44:14
5. Justin Metzler (USA) S 25:35 B 2:02:30 R 1:15:21 TOT 3:45:40
6. Joe Gambles (AUS) S 25:46 B 2:02:36 R 1:16:06 TOT 3:46:48
7. Robbie Deckard (USA) S NA B 2:02:58 R 1:14:16 TOT 3:47:04
8. Martin Ulloa (CHL) S 25:30 B 2:02:25 R 1:17:31 TOT 3:47:59
9. Tyler Butterfield (BER) S 25:38 B 2:01:57 R 1:19:52 TOT 3:50:19
10. Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (MEX) S 25:41 B 2:08:28 R 1:14:57 TOT 3:52:02

Women

1. Emma Pallant-Browne (GBR) S 27:48 B 2:11:59 R 1:17:40 TOT 3:59:54
2. Taylor Knibb (USA) 26:05 B 2:12:25 R 1:21:40 TOT 4:02:20
3. Jeanni Metzler (RSA) S 27:02 B 2:12:37 R 1:20:29 TOT 4:02:32
4. Skye Moench (USA) S 28:54 B 2:12:47 R 1:25:29 TOT 4:09:43
5. Tamara Jewett (USA) S 29:27 B 23:21:07 R 1:16:51 TOT 4:10:41
6. Chelsea Sodaro (USA) S 28:57 B 2:14:30 R 1:25:04 TOT 4:11:00
7. Lesley Smith (USA) S 29:40 B 2:20:53 R 1:21:56 TOT 4:15:48
8. Sarah Piampiano (USA) S 33:06 B 2:15:13 R 1:27:21 TOT 4:18:20
9. Jocelyn McCauley (USA) S 28:44 B 2:14:36 T 1:33:29 TOT 4:19:49
10. Sonja Catano (USA) S 6:58 B 2:20:07 R 1:30:30 TOT 4:19:59