A strong win for two British athletes today: James Teagle and Lucy Hall took the day at Ironman 70.3 Gdynia. While Hall already made it clear in the water that she was out for the win, Teagle waited until the bike to take the lead. Nobody was able to make these athletes nervous once they made their moves. Teagle shared the podium with Sweden’s Robert Kallin (+1:21), who finished second, and Ireland’s Chris Mintern (+4:54), who took third. The women’s podium was complete with Poland’s Aleksandra Jedrzejewsk and Belgium’s Katrien Verstuyft, who crossed the line in second (+3:59) and third place (+11:45)
James Teagle out of sight once in the saddle
Reaching his bike in sixth place, only seconds down to the leader – Hungary’s Bence Lehmann – Teagle was right in the mix after the first discipline. On the bike, he soon moved forward until he reached first place and enjoyed a lead of over one minute on his first chasers at 30 km. Behind him, Kallin – who had been in the lead before he crashed – and Mintern, tried to close the gap to Teagle. In fourth and fifth place, Kacper Stepniak (POL) and Sergiy Kurockin (UKR) tried to hunt down Teagle (+1:30). Racking his bike with only about half a minute of an advantage left on Kallin, Teagle conquered the run. Running 1:16:34 for the 21.1 km, Teagle maintained his first place and therefore it was the Britt who crossed the line in first place (3:51:54). Kallin took second and Chris Mintern completed the podium.
Lucy Hall leads from start to finish
It turned into a lonely day for Hall in the women’s race. It came as no surprise that she exited the water in first place, but with a gap of nearly five minutes to the second lady, Hall didn’t have much to worry about after this point. On the bike, she extended her lead to over ten minutes. It was only a matter of maintaining her lead during the half-marathon. Only Jedrzejewska was somewhat able to keep up with Hall, but it wasn’t enough to get in between Hall and the win. After 4:18:45, Hall lifted the tape, claiming the title. Jedrzejewska finished second and Verstuyft crossed the line in third.
