Winning on home soil is always extra special and Marta Sanchez can speak for that: the Spanish athlete just won Ironman Barcelona and did so in very impressive fashion. She led from start to finish and did all the work alone.
Already after the swim, Sanchez had a lead of minutes: after 51:12 minutes she entered T1 and was followed by Dutch Sarissa de Vries – who became World Champion Long Distance in 2021 but then first got pregnant and after that faces some major injuries – by more than four minutes. Behind De Vries, the differences were even bigger already.
On the bike it was still getting somewhat exciting, when De Vries had approached halfway to just under two minutes, but after 180 kilometers Sanchez’s lead had already increased to just over two minutes. Sara Svensk followed in third at 6:12 minutes and Johanna Arens in fourth at 9:05 minutes.
Already during the first kilometers of the run it became clear that De Vries did not have good running legs as she lost lots of time: after 15 kilometers she would even drop out of the race. And even though Svensk ran slightly faster than Sanchez, victory was no longer in danger anywhere for Sanchez.
Sanchez won the race in 8:31:32, while Svensk finished second in 8:36:13. Henrike Güber finished third in 8:44:51.
