She already made it clear on the bike: Sweden’s Lisa Norden came to Challenge Salou to win. And that’s what she did. She stayed ahead of Dutch’ Els Visser and Britain’s Lucy Hall, who respectively took second and third.
Due to extreme weather conditions – strong winds and high waves – the swim part was replaced by a 5k run. After 15:29 minutes, it was Spain’s Sara Perez Sala who reached her bike first. Only fifteen seconds later, Norden hit the road and Visser followed another stone-throw away. Norden immediately took off on her own, while Perez Sala, Visser and Hall enjoyed each other’s company in the chase pack. About halfway through the bike, this group of three was 1:30 minute behind Norden.
After 2:08:13 hours, Norden replaced her bike for running shoes. Visser, Hall and Perez Sala were still right alongside each other. With a gap bigger than six minutes, it seemed like Norden didn’t have much to worry about on the run. Both Visser and Hall were strong in this final discipline too, though. They fought side-by-side for second. While Norden relatively “easy” ran to a big win, Visser was able to claim silver (+7:52) and Hall settled for bronze (+8:33).
