Van Berkel overcame a 1:20 deficit after his 7th-best swim and 2nd-fastest 2:04:45 bike split that left him in 5th place and 45 seconds arrears starting the run. Van Berkel then closed with a dominating run that was 2:24 better than his closest pursuer. Van Berkel thus advanced from 5th to 1st and finished in 3:44:28 with a 2:17 margin on Luke McKenzie and 2:45 on 3rd-place finisher Terenzo Bozzone of New Zealand.

Defending champion Caroline Steffen of Switzerland and chief rival Annabel Luxford of Australia quickly made up for a half minute deficit to swim leader Radka Vodickova of the Czech Republic. The duo rode to 2:22:15 and 2:22:25 bike splits (topped only by slow-swimming age grouper Jacqueline Henricks of Australia’s women’s-best 2:20:50 split), which gave them a 2:35 lead over Vodickova at T2.

Steffen, known to her many triathlon friends as Xena, as in Warrior Princess, took a 20 seconds edge of Luxford at 5k, increased that to 25 seconds at 8k, and earned a 1:30 advantage by 15k into the run. By the finish, Steffen’s stellar 1:18:43 split was 2:36 faster than Luxford could muster and brought her to the finish in 4:09:26, with a 2:36 lead on Luxford and 5:44 on Vodickova, who took the final spot on the podium.

Beth Gerdes of the U.S. outran Steffen by 8 seconds on her way to 6th place.