It was exciting for a long time at Ironman South Africa, even into the very last kilometers, but in the end Swede Rasmus Svenningsson won the race. He did so after a wonderful battle with Cameron Wurf.
The race began not that strong for Svenningsson, because when he came out of the water, he was 12th and nearly five minutes behind the fastest man at the time: Josh Amberger. Amberger came out of the water after 47:01 minutes and then had a two-minute lead over a first chasing group that included Mathias Lynsgo Petersen, Leonard Arnold, a surprisingly good swimming Cameron Wurf and also Yvan Jarrige.
During the bike, two men stood out above the rest and so were Wurf and Svenningsson. Early in the race, the two men came to bike together and stayed that way for a long time. However, after about 130 kilometers a gap was forced by Svenningsson who, in impressive fashion, rode away from Wurf and set off alone towards T2. In the kilometers that followed, the Swede managed to build a lead of no less than 3 minutes over Wurf, and the third man, German Leonard Arnold, started the run more than nine minutes behind. Svenningsson thus began the marathon in a comfortable position.
Yet the real battle then began, as slowly but surely Wurf began to make up time and get closer to Svenningsson. After about 25 kilometers, Wurf even joined the leader and for a while it looked like he would win the race. However, Svenningsson did not let himself get crazy, accelerated once more and then, with about ten kilometers to go, ran away from Wurf at a high pace.
Svenningsson won the race in a time of 8:03:11. Petersen passed Wurf in the closing stages and finished second in 8:06:50. Wurf did finish third in a time of 8:07:37.
