Ironman 70.3 rookies and ITU Olympic distance stars Marten Van Riel of Belgium and Ashleigh Gentle of Australia won Xiamen 70.3.

Van Riel combined a race-best 23:21 swim, a 2nd-fastest 2:01:33 bike split and a by far race-best 1:13:56 half marathon to finish in 3:44:26 with a 3:58 margin of victory over Josh Amberger of Australia and 10:03 over 3rd place finisher Tim Reed of Australia.

Ashleigh Gentle swam a women's-best 27:38 split, biked a women’s second-fastest 2:20:46 split and ran a women’s-best 1:21:10 to finish in 4:16:05 with a 4:46 margin of victory over Lesley Smith of the U.S. and 7:30 over 3rd place finisher Frankie Sanjana of Great Britain.

Men

Van Riel opened with a 23:21 swim split which gave him a 2 seconds lead on Amberger, 1:33 over 20912 Ironman World Champion Pete Jacobs of Australia, 1:34 over Kevin Collington of the U.S., 1:35 over Sam Betten of Australia, 1:39 over former Ironman 70.3 World Champion Tim Reed of Australia, 1:59 over Jens Roth of Germany and 2:32 over Leigh Anderson-Voight of Australia.

Van Riel and Amberger surged away to a 2:25 lead on Reed, Betten, Roth and Jacobs after 10 kilometers. While a rookie at the 70.3 distance, Van Riel last year was 3rd at the European Championships. This year he was 3rd at the World Cup in Edmonton and had q top-10 at the ITU Grand Final in Lausanne and placed 2nd at the Military World Games in China.

Amberger came to China armed with 11 wins at the 70.3 distance, three 70.3 wins and in Ironman competition took 2nd at Vittoria-Gasteiz and 7th in South Africa. Lowlights were 17th at Ironman 70.3 Worlds and 33rd at Kona.

After 55km of the 90km bike leg., Van Riel and Amberger increased their lead to 4:46 on Reed and another minute on a group that included Betten, Jacobs,, Collington and Roth while Anderson-Voight trailed by 7:38.

After a race-best 2:01:30 bike split, Amberger led Van Riel into T2 by 13 seconds, Reed by 6:31, Collington by 9:06, Jacobs by 9:16, Betten by 9:21 and Roth by 9:33.

Once on the run, Van Riel used his ITU speed to run away from Amberger – by 1:13 after 10 kilometers, by 2:13 at 15.5 kilometers and by 3:57 at the finish. Reed took 3rd after a second-best 1:17:41 run and a 3:54:29 finish.

Women

Gentle, coming off her 7th win at the Noosa Triathlon, led the women’s swim with a 27:38 split that gave her a 3 seconds lead on Julie Iemmolo of France, 1:41 over Robin Pomeroy of the U.S., 1:51 over Lesley Smith of the U.S. and 4:16 over Kate Bevilaqua of Australia.

After 10.5 kilometers of the bike leg, Gentle rocketed to a 52 seconds lead on Iemmolo, 3:00 on Pomeroy, 3:04 on Smith, 5:29 on Frankie Sanjana of Great Britain, and 6:26 on Bevilaqua.

At 55km, Gentle led hard-riding Sanjana by 3 minutes, who sliced 2:46 from her swim deficit, Smith by 3:26, Pomeroy by 3:29 and Iemmolo by 4:29.

After a women's second-best 2:20:46 bike split, Gentle entered T2 with a 1 minute lead on Sanjana, who jetted through a women’s-best 2:16:00 bike split. After a swift transition, Sanjana trailed Gentle by just 25 seconds. Further back were Smith at +2:40, Pomeroy at +2:58, Iemmolo at +9:17 and Bevilaqua at +10:46.

Running at a 3:45 per kilometer pace, Gentle opened a 3:36 lead on Smith, who led Sanjana by 100 meters.

After a women’s-best 1:21:10 run split, Gentle finished in 4:16:05 with a 4:46 margin of victory over Smith (1:23:16 run) and 7:30 over 3rd place Sanjana (1:28:14 run).

Ironman 70.3 Xiamen
Xiamen, China
November 10, 2019
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Men

Marten Van Riel (BEL) 3:44:26 S 23:21 T1 2:55 B 2:01:33 T2 2:44 R 1:13:56
Josh Amberger (AUS) 3:48:24 S 23:22 T1 2:54 B 2:01:30 T2 2:33 R 1:18:07
Tim Reed (AUS) 3:54:29 S 25:00 T1 3:07 B 2:05:49 T2 21:55 R 1:17:41
Kevin Collington (USA) 3:58:22 S 24:55 T1 2:57 B 2:08:59 T2 2:34 R 1:19:00
Leigh Anderson-Voight (AUS) 3:58:58 S 25:53 T1 3:09 B 2:09:08 T2 2:38 R 1:18:12

Women

Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) 4:16:05 S 27:38 T1 3:08 B 2:20:46 T2 3:24 R 1:21:10
Lesley Smith (USA) 4:20:51 S 29:29 T1 3:31 B 2:21:42 T2 2:55 R 1:23:16
Frankie Sanjana (GBR) 4:23:35 S 32:50 T1 3:42 B 2:16:00 T2 2:50 R 1:28:14
Robin Pomeroy (USA) 4:35:17 S 29:19 T1 3:39 B 2:21:48 T2 3:39 R 1:37:32
Kate Bevilaqua (AUS) 4:37:58 S 31:54 T1 3:48 B 2:25:45 T2 4:05 R 1:32:28