In a race which was pretty exciting during the swim and bike, Brits Harry Palmer and Nikki Bartlett won Ironman 70.3 Swansea at home. Both athletes had an excellent lead at the finish line and their victory was not in danger in the final kilometers of the run.
The race, which was attended by not very many professional athletes in both the men’s and women’s races, was broken open immediately during the swim. It was Briton Andrew Horsfall-Turner who came out of the water after 22:36 minutes and then held the lead, while Palmer followed in second a good minute later. Palmer was surrounded at that point by Jack Hutchens, Gabriel Sandör and Matthew Collins.
Contrary to what might have been expected, Horsfall-Turner initially stayed ahead of the chasers and even saw his lead more than double. Yet that didn’t last ninety kilometers – nor even half of it – because even before the 45-kilometer mark, his lead quickly narrowed and shortly thereafter the three chasing men joined him as well. Still, a gap was forced in the closing stages and so it came to pass that only Palmer and Horsfall-Turner returned to the lead in T2.
That Palmer had the best running legs was immediately evident during the first kilometers of the run. Immediately he took the lead in the race and he would not give it away anymore. He won the race in 3:52:54. Sandör, who won a place during the half marathon, finished second in 3:55:36 and Horsfall-Turner finished third in 3:56:13.
Nikki Bartlett had more time to make up after the swim, as when she came out of the water she was seventh and looking at a nearly 1:45 minute deficit. On the bike, however, she pushed the pace and she gained not only positions, but also time. But even though she advanced to second place and almost caught up with the fastest woman at the time, it just didn’t fully work out: Lizzie Rayner made her transition 27 seconds before Bartlett, who thus started the half marathon in second place, but was already heading to victory.
This was immediately apparent when Bartlett had a lead of more than a minute over Rayner at the first timing point on the run course, after a little more than six kilometers, and could therefore run carefree to victory. And so she did, as in the kilometers that followed, her lead eventually only increased.
Bartlett won the race in 4:21:05. Megan McDonald, who started the half marathon in third position, finished second in 4:25:03. Rayner eventually finished third in 4:28:21.
