In addition to our featured race stories in San Francisco and Kraichgau, The Weekend Box presents for your reading pleasure 70.3s in Japan and Italy, a sunny XTERRA in Spain, and sub-standard water-quality mandated duathlons in Dallas and the Coral Coast of Australia.

Daniela Ryf and Ruedi Wild win Ironman 70.3 Switzerland

Reigning Ironman 70.3 World Champion and Kona runner-up Daniela Ryf smashed the women's field and Ruedi Wild edged Manuel Küng to lead a Swiss sweep of Ironman 70.3 Switzerland.

Ryf’s domination started immediately as her 24:00 swim split was 4 minutes faster than her nearest pursuer. She increase that lead to 16 minutes at T2 with a 2:17:17 bike split which was 11:31 better than her nearest chaser. And while her run was 1:37 slower than 3rd-place finisher Kristin Möller, Ryf’s 4:08:43 finish gave her an 18:06 margin over runner-up Sonja Tajsich and 22:38 better than Möller, who earned the final spot on the podium.

With this win, Ryf maintains a spotless record in 2015 after victories at Challenge Dubai and Ironman 70.3 Mallorca.

Ruedi Wild came back from a 1:48 deficit after the swim and a 2:48 deficit after the bike leg with a race-best 1:14:32 run to finish in 3:51:27 with a 1:11 margin on fellow Swiss Manuel Küng and 2:11 on 3rd-place finisher Jan Van Berkel.

Küng led the swim in 22:08, 1 second ahead of Martin Bader, 1:44 ahead of Mike Aigroz, 1:45 ahead of Jan van Berkel and 1:48 ahead of Wild. Küng hammered away to a 1:07 lead on Bader, 2:03 on Wild, 2:05 on Van Berkel and Mike Aigroz and 2:08 on Ronnie Schildknecht at 10.4 km of the bike. After that initial flurry, things settled down a bit by 60km as Küng led Van Berkel by 2:19, Aigroz by 2:20, Wild by 2:21, and Schildknecht by 2:23. By the bike finish, Küng led Van Berkel by 2:44, Wild and Aigroz by 2:48 and Schildknecht by 2:50.

On the run, things went in a different direction as Küng lost a minute of his lead by 3.8km just as Wild went on the attack and took 2nd 1:45 behind. By 9k Wild wrested the lead from Küng and by 14k, he carved out a 41 seconds advantage on Küng, 1:41 on van Berkel and 2:30 on Schildknecht.

Ironman 70.3 Switzerland
Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland
June 7, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 14.1 mi.

Results

Women

1. Daniela Ryf (SUI) 4:08:43
2. Sonja Tajsich (GER) 4:26:49
3. Kristin Moller (GER) 4:31:21
4. Martina Kunz (SUI) 4:35:50 *F330-34
5. Xenia Luxem (SUI) 4:37:11 * D30-34

Men

1. Ruedi Wild (SUI) 3:51:27
2. Manuel Küng (SUI) 3:52:38
3. Jan Van Berkel (SUI) 3:53:38
4. Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) 3:54:19
5. Antonio Mario (ITA) 3:56:04 *M45-49

Shiao-Yu Li and Mitchell Robins win Ironman 70.3 Japan

Taiwan’s triathlon star Shiao-Yu Li came back from a 6:13 deficit after the swim with a women's-best bike and run splits and Mitchell Robins used a race-best swim and bike splits to hold off Ryan Waddington’s race-best run to win Ironman 70.3 Japan.

Women

Hawaii pro Bree Wee led the swim in 23:03 which gave her a 1:44 lead on Sandra Fantini of France, 1:46 on Keiko Tanaka of Japan, 4:08 on Mami Ishii of Japan, 5:42 on Stef Puszka of Australia and 6:12 and 6:13 on Shiao-Yu Li of Taiwan and Emi Sakai of Japan.

After a women's best 2:34:24 bike split, Li advanced to second place, pulling within 1:21 of leader Tanaka, who posted a women's 2nd-best 2:38:32 bike split. Wee fell to 3rd after a women's 4th-best 2:42:54 bike split.

Li then played her ace – posting a women’s best 1:28:21 run which brought her to the finish in 4:37:40 with a 1:35 margin of victory over Tanaka (1:31:31 run split) and 11:55 over 3rd-place finisher Wee (1:38:12 run).

This was Li’s third Ironman professional win, adding to her two wins at Ironman Japan.

Men

Mitchell Robins began his wire-to-wire win with a race-best 22:43 swim, which gave him 2 seconds margin on Kuniaki Takahama of Japan, 3 seconds on Alex Reithmeier of Australia, 4 seconds on Derek Cross of Australia 7 seconds on Ryan Waddington of Australia and 10 seconds on Kaito Tohara of Japan.

After the bike leg, Robins’ race-best 2:19:52 split gave him a 56 seconds lead on Reithmeier (2:20:47), 1:51 on Waddington (2:21:46), 1:52 on Cross (2:47:12) and 4:16 on Tohara.

Robins closed with a 3rd-fastest 1:18:18 run split which gave away 26 seconds to Waddington (race-best 1:17:52 run) but still afforded Robins to finish in 4:04:59 with a 1:38 margin of victory over Waddington. Reithmeier ran 1:19:48 and finished 3rd, 2:31 after the winner. Tohara ran a 2nd-fastest 1:18:13 to finish 4th, 4:10 behind the winner.

Lixil Ironman 70.3 Japan
Tokoname City, Japan
June 7, 2015
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Women

1. Shiao-Yu Li (TWN) 4:37:40
2. Keiko Tanaka (JPN) 4:39:15
3. Bree Wee (USA) 4:49:35
4. Stef Puszaka (AUS) 4:50:44
5. Emi Sakai (JPN) 4:51:29

Men

1. Mitchell Robins (AUS) 4:04:59
2. Ryan Waddington (AUS) 4:06:37
3. Alex Reithmeier (AUS) 4:07:30
4. Kaito Tohara (JPN) 4:09:09
5. Swen Sundberg (GER) 4:15:45

Erin Jones and Russell Pennock win Dallas CAMTRI American Cup

Erin Jones of the U.S. and Russell Pennock of Canada won the men’s and women's titles at the Dallas CAMTRI American Cup sprint races in Texas.

Because recent floods led to a an accidental wastewater discharge, Dallas County Health and Human Services suspended all recreational activity in Lake Carolyn where the swim portion of the triathlon was due to take place. So the race was changed to follow the sprint duathlon format of a 5km run, a 20km bike and a 2.5km run.

Women

In the opening 5k run, U.S. competitor Summer Cook led the field in 17:11 with Erin Jones of the U.S. and Adriana Isaura Carreno of Mexico hot on her heels in 17:12 followed by Erin Dolan of the U.S. in 17:14 and Calah Schlabach of the U.S. next in 17:18.

On the bike, Jones and Cook broke away with 33:37 and 33:42 splits that put a 90 seconds gap on their chasers. On the run, Dolan sped away from Cook with a 8:39 split for the 2.5km and crossed the finish in 1:00:43. While Cook gave away 43 seconds to Jones on the final run, the time she banked on the bike breakaway was enough to hold on to second place, 54 seconds ahead of 3rd-place Schlabach of the U.S. and 1:12 ahead of 4th place U.S. competitor Erin Dolan.

Men

The top 10 men in the opening 5k run were separated by only 8 seconds. U.S. competitors Josh Izewski and Alex Willis led with equal 15:12 splits followed by Taylor Forbes of Canada, Jason West of the U.S. and Edson Gomez of Mexico tied at 15:15; Robby Webster of the U.S. at 15:16; Russell Pennock of Canada and John O’Neill of the U.S. at 15:19 and Sean Jefferson of the U.S. at 15:20.

While Izewski fell off the pace on the bike, four more contenders sped up to join a lead pack which numbered 12 at T2. The race thus came down to 2.5k run won by Pennock of Canada (7:16 run, 54:08 finish), followed by Sean Jefferson of the U.S. (7:28 run, 54:18 finish) and Jason West of the U.S. (7:33 run, 54:22 finish) filling out the podium.

Dallas CAMTRI American Cup
Dallas, Texas
June 6, 2015
R 5k / B 20k / R 2.5k

Results

Women

1. Erin Jones (USA) 1:00:43
2. Summer Cook (USA) 1:01:30
3. Calah Schlabach (USA) 1:02:24
4. Erin Dolan (USA) 1:02:38
5. Adriana Isaura Carreno (MEX) 1:02:54

Men

1. Russell Pennock (CAN) 54:08
2. Sean Jefferson (USA) 54:18
3. Jason West (USA) 54:22
4. Robby Webster (USA) 54:30
5. Alex Willis (USA) 54:35

James Cunnama and Katey Gibb win Coral Coast 5i50

On a course intended to be am Olympic distance triathlon but switched to a duathlon because of water conditions, James Cunnama of South Africa and Katey Gibb of Western Australia won top honors at the Coral Coast 5i50 in Port Douglas, Australia.

Arriving early for Ironman Cairns, Cunnama used the Coral Coast impromptu duathlon for training and found the course to his liking.

“Today was a great hit out prior to next week’s Ironman Cairns and I felt good out there,” said Cunnama. “The wind on the beach was pushing us in one direction and pulling us the other way and running on sand always makes it more of a challenge. But that just makes it more of an experience.”

The 10k run is one of the most unique in Australia - four laps on hard sand along Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas. Cunnama set a strong pace and although David Mainwaring tried, he just didn’t have the legs to catch the Ironman winner and was pleased with his runner-up performance. Matt Franklin took the final spot on the podium.

Australian Katey Gibb, who took third at the recent Ironman 70.3 Busselton, won the Coral Coast 5i50 women's division. “It’s such a perfect place to race,” said Gibb. “I’ve heard so much about this race I didn't want to miss it.”

Queensland’s Sarah Crowley and Beth Gerdes of the U.S. placed second and third.

Coral Coast 5i50
Port Douglas, Australia
June 7, 2015
R 2k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Men

1. James Cunnama (RSA) 1:33:21
2. David Mainwaring (AUS) 1:37:07
3. Matt Franklin (NZL) 1:39:05

Women

1. Katey Gibb (AUS) 1:45:34
2. Sarah Crowley (AUS) 1:46:51
3. Beth Gerdes (USA) 1:49:58

Helena Erbenova and Ruben Ruzafa win XTERRA Spain

Two-time XTERRA European Tour Champion Helena Erbenova and three-time and reigning XTERRA World champion Ruben Ruzafa won the XTERRA Spain Championship for the second straight year.

In the women's race, Erbenova took the lead from Brigitta Poor at the 20km mark of the bike and pressed on for a 14 minutes, 4 seconds margin of victory.

The win was Ruzafa’s 11th in a row on the European Tour since winning the XTERRA World Title in Maui in 2013. Erbenova’s win was her first since winning XTERRA Italy in 2014.

In the men’s race, Ruzafa made up for his typically modest swim by taking the lead at the 8km mark of the mountain bike section and holding on to the finish on a 95 degree Fahrenheit day. While Ruzafa’s victory was expected, the unexpected delight was fellow Spaniard Albert Soley’s comeback from a deep deficit after the swim to take a runner-up finish.

XTERRA Spain
Extremadura, Spain
June 7, 2015
S 1.5k / MTB 30k / TR 10k

Results

Women

1. Helena Erbenova (CZE) 3:40:16
2. Brigitta Poor (HUN) 3:54:20
3. Louise Fox (GBR) 4:12:46

Men

1. Ruben Ruzafa (ESP) 2:59:06
2. Albert Soley (ESP) 3:05:09
3. Roger Serrano (ESP) 3:06:36
4. Francois Carloni (FRA) 3:08:57
5. Xavier Riart (ESP) 3:09:07