In a race completely dominated by Australians and New Zealanders in both the men’s and women’s events – no other nationalities appeared in the top ten – Ben Hamilton and Milan Agnew won Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast today.
Hamilton may not have recorded the fastest swim time, but trailing Sam Osborne by fifteen seconds and in sixth position, he was in a perfect position after the swim. The differences between the fastest eight men were minimal, so the race was wide open. On the bike, some men occasionally dropped further back, but Osborne, Hamilton and also Nick Thompson, Jack Sosinski and Jonathan Sammut kept five men together until T2.
Initially, it was Osborne who managed to break away from the group during the run, but Hamilton followed in second position and did not let his deficit exceed 30 seconds. Halfway through the run he began to catch up again and not much later he took the lead from Osborne. From that point Hamilton ran to victory in a time of 3:39:17. Thompson, who also passed Osborne in the closing stages, was second in 3:40:53 and Osborne was third in 3:42:38.
Milan Agnew came out of the water seventh and was then 51 seconds behind Sophie Malowiecki, who recorded the fastest swim time. As in the men’s race, a leading group formed in the women’s race, which included Natalie van Coevorden, Radka Kahlefeldt, Chloe Hartnett and Aleisha Wesley in addition to Malowiecki and Agnew. Except for Wesley, this group stayed together until T2.
During the run, Agnew and Malowiecki initially ran side by side, steadily building tension in the race. For about seventeen kilometers, things went completely even, until Agnew managed to grab a minimal lead in the final kilometers. That lead was so minimal that with her finishing time of 4:07:51, she ended up only 25 seconds ahead of Malowiecki (4:08:16), who thus finished second. Kahlefeldt finished third in 4:10:20.
