Canadian Jackson Laundry and American Lydia Russell have both claimed decisive victories at Ironman 70.3 Augusta. Laundry won by over four minutes, while Russell finished with a lead of more than eight minutes.
Laundry was strong throughout the day – as expected for a race winner – and had only a small deficit to make up after the swim. Trailing by 1:07 behind his compatriot Brett Saunders, who was fastest out of the water, Laundry entered T1 in 14th place. However, that quickly changed on the bike. Within ten kilometers, he had moved well into the top ten, and just ten kilometers later, he took the lead. Laundry then pushed the pace even further, pulling away from the field to enter T2 with a lead of nearly six minutes over a large group of pursuers.
During the half marathon, Laundry lost a bit of time, but far too little to put his victory in doubt; he won with a final time of 3:37:16. Ari Klau took second place in 3:41:54, and Nicholas Chase finished third in 3:44:22.
A different scenario unfolded in the women’s race, which was initially dominated by two athletes. Following a swim that already established the first gaps, compatriots Russell and Grace Alexander joined forces on the bike and stayed together all the way to T2. By that point, it was clear that one of them would take the victory, as they started the run with a lead of more than 4:30 minutes.
In the opening kilometers of the run, Russell opened a massive gap on Alexander and cruised to a resounding victory, crossing the line in 4:02:06. Alexander finished second in 4:10:46, and Samantha Skold completed the podium in third place with a time of 4:14:12.
