The penultimate Ironman middle-distance race of the season defied expectations, with six athletes achieving the best results in the Middle East and earning a ticket to next season’s Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Taupo.
He won Ironman 70.3 Bahrain and the accompanying Middle East regional title for the men’s race. Marten van RielWith my Olympic friends henry schoeman Returned home in 2nd place, slightly ahead of the UK Max Stapley The athlete ran a great race and came in 3rd place.
On the women’s side, Bahrain Victorious cat matthews She finished the season with a big win, but her teammates Amelia Watkinson secure the runner-up spot before ~ caroline paul.
Pro Men – Marten van Riel ends the season on a high
The start list included the short course stars and the long course front group, and with German Wilhelm Hirsch finishing just in front of Minami, quite a number of the top groups lined up in transition in Bahrain. It wasn’t surprising. African shaman.
The top eight also included Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee, fellow British stars Dan Dixon and Stapley, and Belgian Van Riel, winner of the recent Ironman 70.3 Fortaleza, was also at the front.
From the start of the bike, it looked like Van Riel was setting the tone at the front of the race, but Danish short course athlete Emil Holm closed the +0:27 gap between Swim and Hirsch to take the lead. filled the gap. Stapley, Schoeman, Dixon, Brownlee and South Africa’s Nicholas Kene are close by.
Unfortunately for Brownlee and the leaders, PTO World #31 fell off the tracker at the 45km mark of the race and appeared to have retired due to a problem on the bike course. [updates to follow]. In his absence, the lead group continued to push forward, with Van Riel and Hirsch managing to escape, building a lead of nearly a minute and a half over the rest by the time they entered T2.
Van Riel looked destined for victory a few kilometers into the run as he slowly dropped Hirsch and it became a question of who would join him on the podium. By the 10km mark, Schoeman had moved into second place, and Stapley, who had passed Hirsch just before the halfway point, moved into third.
Van Riel pushed with a few kilometers to go and maintained a gap of around a minute from Schoeman, but the South African van Riel held off Stapley, who looked safe in third place, while Hirsch battled for minor position with Holm, Kennett and Dixon. ing. .
Van Riel held out strongly for victory, finishing off a difficult year with a victory over Schoeman, who had to settle for second place despite running exactly the same splits as the Belgian. Stapley finished third, fulfilling his earlier promise to boost the event in Bahrain, giving three short course athletes a place on the podium ahead of the 2024 Paris Games.
Women’s Pro – Cat Matthews ends 2023 with a win
Unsurprisingly, in the women’s race, Team BMC star Lucy Buckingham was the first out of the water, with the Briton taking nearly 30 seconds over the next best German, Pole, and Denmark’s Ann Holm. They had a nearly one-minute lead over the Schiff-Bendix duo. Madsen.
Further back from the water, Ellie Salthouse finished fifth in +1:35, while Ironman 70.3 World Championship runner-up Matthews was joined by fellow Briton Kate Curran and Portugal’s Raquel Rocha. Finished in 2:46.
Having extended his lead in the early stages of the bike, Buckingham continued to give time to the pair of Paule and Denmark, but Matthews initially started to claw his way back to fifth place at Salthouse, but was unable to make any further inroads on the Australian. .
Buckingham came off the bike with a good result of +1 minute 40 seconds over Paule, but Madsen was more than two minutes behind and the rest of the riders, including Holm, Salthouse and Matthews, were about five minutes behind PTO world No. 39. It became. She had great cycling legs, cycling more than a minute faster than her closest competitor.
Once the run started, the time difference began to narrow, and Buckingham’s lead began to narrow. Matthews started seventh in T2 and improved his time by more than a minute in the first 5km, passing Salthouse and New Zealand’s Watkinson along the way.
By about the halfway mark, Paule had halved the gap to Buckingham, closing the gap to just +0:43, with Matthews emerging into podium position, but with over three minutes behind him and the two in front of him. It seems likely that they will catch up. Run at a fast speed for the first 10km.
Matthews was the first to overtake Buckingham at 14.2km, but Paul, Watkinson and Salthouse soon followed, with Matthews, who had been in the lead for a long time, starting to struggle in the second half of the run. Up front, Matthews looked strong and in control, trailing Watkinson by more than a minute.
Matthews, who is ranked 6th in the PTO world and took his first win in the middle distance this year, took the tape by a comfortable margin, while Watkinson ran an excellent race to take second place. Paul was active throughout the day and his efforts were rewarded with 3rd place.
Iroman 70.3 Bahrain 2023 Results
promen
- 1. Marten van Riel (BEL) – 3:31:21
- 2. Henri Schoeman (RSA) – 3:32:50
- 3. Max Stapley (GBR) – 3:34:20
- 4. Emil Holm (DEN) – 3:34:46
- 5. Gregory Barnaby (ITA) – 3:34:53
female professional
- 1. Cat Matthews (GBR) – 3:59:07
- 2. Amelia Watkinson (NZL) – 3:59:43
- 3. Caroline Paul (GER) – 4:00:17
- 4. Ellie Salthouse (Australia) – 4:00:50
- 5. Anna Bergsten (SWE) – 4:01:03