After a dominant day, Maximilian Sperl has just won Ironman 70.3 Gdynia; the German athlete was already at the front in the water, then dominated on the bike, and subsequently finished the race excellently during the run. In the women’s race, the victory went to Agnieszka Gadomska.
In the men’s race, Brit Andrew Horsfall-Turner took the initiative and was the first to come out of the water with a swim time of 26:06. However, Sperl was right there with him, along with the Pole Robert Wilkowiecki, and he also immediately looked strong on the bike. Together with Horsfall-Turner, he went on the attack, but about halfway through, the Brit had to let him go and Sperl had to continue on his own. That went excellently, because by T2 his lead over his first pursuer was already exactly two minutes.
During the run, Sperl didn’t take it easy, because there too he saw his lead grow, eventually to 3:35 minutes at the finish line. Sperl ultimately won Ironman 70.3 Gdynia in a time of 3:43:48, followed by Horsfall-Turner (3:47:23) and Lars Lomholt (3:48:40).
In the women’s race, five women were at the start, no fewer than four of whom started the concluding half marathon within a minute of each other: the battle between Agnieszka Gadomska, Molly Savill, Rikke Bjerg, and Mimi Carlton was actually completely open; only the Dutch Maaike Vooren was already more than six minutes behind by then.
Yet the run did not become exciting, because Gadomska already had a lead of nearly a minute within one kilometer, and a few kilometers later that lead had doubled. From that moment on, the lead largely stabilized, so it was clear who would win. That was Gadomska in a time of 4:15:42, ahead of Carlton in 4:18:23 and Bjerg in 4:21:23.
