Due to low temperatures, there was no swimming at Ironman Canada, and perhaps that was actually to Lionel Sanders’ advantage: in any case, the home favorite won by a large margin on home soil. Sarah True took the win in the women’s race.
Even though Sanders – in preparation for the Ironman World Championships on Kona – invested a lot in recent months to improve his swimming level, that first part will always be the Canadian’s biggest challenge. The fact that he got to start right away on the bike this weekend was therefore not necessarily to his disadvantage, and it showed directly from the start of the race. From the first kilometers on the bike, Sanders was able to grab a lead over his competitors and that lead actually increased throughout the day.
Sanders finished the bike in a time of 4:09:17 and at that point his lead was already more than ten minutes over Sam Appleton, while Jason Pohl was third at that point and trailing by more than fourteen minutes. The tension in the marathon was therefore actually far away; especially when it turned out that Appleton did manage to make up two minutes in the first few kilometers, but did not get any closer after that.
After a marathon of 2:45:52, Sanders won the race in 6:57:09. Appleton and Pohl finished second and third in 7:05:37 and 7:15:44, respectively.
For winner Sarah True the race developed different, because even though she did record the fastest time after five kilometers of cycling, it was then American Jodie Robertson who took over the initiative. With a bike time of 4:50:39, it was Robertson who started the marathon first, but True followed at a manageable gap of 2:26 minutes.
Already in the first few running kilometers, True took over the lead in the race and she would not relinquish it. With a run time of 2:57:53, True was ultimately good for an overall time of 7:52:29. Robertson was second in 7:59:38 and Deborah Eckhouse was third in 8:04:19.
