Emma Pallant-Browne has shown for the umpteenth time that she is world-class: after a stunningly strong run, in which she made up a big deficit to Laura Philipp, the British athlete has just won Ironman 70.3 Mallorca.
Pallant-Browne and Philipp were clearly the strongest women of the day, but that was not immediately clear after the swim. There it was Julie Iemmolo, Sif Bendix Madsen, Luisa Iogna Prat, Stephanie Clutterbuck and Bianca Bogen who came out of the water first after 24:13 minutes, while Lizzie Rayner followed in sixth with a minute to spare. Philipp and Pallant-Browne were together by then already and followed at about a minute and a half: they were seventh and eighth at the time.
The two women initially stayed together on the bike as well and rode straight to the head of the race. After thirty kilometers, they had caught everyone and their lead had even increased to several minutes. Yet Philipp apparently wanted more and wasn’t keen on continuing together, as she impressively rode away from Pallant-Browne, eventually returning solo in T2. She did so with a 2:21 minute lead over her British pursuer.
For Pallant-Browne that meant a hard chase, but she succeeded brilliantly. She made up time per kilometer and got closer and closer to Philipp. After fifteen kilometers she even rejoined her German competitor, but she didn’t stay long: Pallant-Browne immediately passed her and thus ran to a particularly strong victory.
Pallant-Browne finished IM 70.3 Mallorca in a time of 4:14:21. Philipp finished very closed as second in 4:14:36. Sara Svensk finished third in 4:23:47.
