An American race and two American winners; Ironman 70.3 Oregon was just won by Justin Metzler and Danielle Lewis. The men’s race in particular was a close call, while the women’s race was simply dominated by Lewis.
During the swim, no significant differences were made in the men’s race: a large group of athletes came out of the water at the same time, containing almost all the favorites, including Metzler. The fastest swim time was set by Kyle Buckingham; the South African athlete swam 16:23 minutes, which made it clear that the swimming was certainly not 1.9 kilometers.
On the bike, the differences quickly became bigger and it was initially American Kennett Peterson who got himself away from the rest of the field. He did so with such conviction that he only saw his lead grow and when he returned to T2, he had a 5:28 minute lead over Buckingham and also Metzler.
Peterson did not start the half marathon for reasons still unclear and so it came that Metzler suddenly found himself in the lead. Buckingham, however, kept only a few seconds behind him, and Jack Moody, who had started the half marathon a minute and a half later, also came closer every kilometer. Remarkably, the American Marty Andrie also came very close to Metzler, and so the three chasers ran for quite a long time at only a few seconds behind the leader, but they did not succeed in overtaking him.
After just over 12 kilometers Andrie tried anyway and finally passed Metzler, who in turn quickly came alongside and took back the lead. From that moment on, Metzler did not relinquish his position and eventually won the race in 3:39:57. Andrie dropped back to fourth place in the final kilometers, making Moody (+0:41) and Buckingham (+2:12) second and third.
In the women’s race, the differences were thus much greater; the American Lewis won the race in a time of 3:59:33 and was the only woman to dive under four hours. Two of Lewis’ compatriots were also on the podium; Miranda Carfrae was second in 4:05:26 and Heather Jackson third in 4:06:44.
It was a great race for Lewis, who came out of the water ninth and was then forty seconds behind. On the bike, however, the American clearly proved to be the best athlete of the day, even though the differences initially remained small and Jackson was still able to follow. The two came off the bike at the same time, while Hannah Wells and also Carfrae followed at just under three minutes.
During the run, Jackson immediately couldn’t follow and it was Lewis who went towards victory. Jackson was overtaken by Carfrae after about seven kilometers and from that moment the top three didn’t change anymore.
