Gregory Barnaby of Italy and Spain’s Marta Sanchez have claimed victory in the men’s and women’s professional races at the Ironman 70.3 Western Australia Asia-Pacific Championship with both athletes impressing on their way to the top step of the podium.
Barnaby took the win in 3:37:35 while Sanchez was victorious in 4:06:38, with both winning on their first visits to the iconic West Australian event.
Barnaby finished two minutes clear of South Africa’s Jamie Riddle, with American Marc Dubrick rounding out the podium.
“Amazing, I can’t quite believe it, it’s my first IM triathlon win, it feels amazing,” said Barnaby. “I knew it was going to be a really, really hard day, there were fast swimmers, I tried to stay at the front and on the bike we had Robert Kallin and Kristian Høgenhaug, two of the best IM cyclists, I knew I had to try and stay at the front.”
Barnaby came out of the water at the back of the leading group of five and stayed at the front of the field throughout the 90km bike leg, returning to transition just behind the leading pack of Robert Kallin (SWE), Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN), Nick Thompson (AUS) and Riddle.
Riddle hit the lead early on the run, with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games representative opening up an almost one minute lead before Barnaby reeled him back in and hit the front with about six kilometres remaining. Barnaby extended his lead from there, with his result even more important in the context of the new Ironman Pro Series, with his 2,500 points moving him into the championship lead with one race remaining.
“That was my goal for today, to stay at the front of the race but to get the win is amazing, it takes a bit of pressure off myself because I needed a really good score, I think that has probably secured my podium position in the IM Pro Series and now I can just go to Taupo to try and perform at my best like I always do and hopefully have a shot for the win,” he said.
Barnaby has been in Australia since finishing sixth at October’s Ironman World Championship in Hawaii and next heads to the final event in the IM Pro Series, the IM 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand.
“It was amazing, I’ve been here a month, the atmosphere and everything has been amazing, it’s been the best choice for myself to come over here straight after Kona and I think it’s paid off obviously, the crowds were awesome, so was the course and sun came out, it was amazing,” he said.
Marta Sanchez claimed the win by just over a minute from Sweden’s Anna Bergsten, with Australian-based Dutch athlete Lotte Wilms just behind in third place.
Wilms was first out of the water, less than a second ahead of Kiwi Teresa Adam, with Sanchez just over 20 seconds behind in third. The Spanish athlete quickly closed the gap, hitting the lead within the first 10km and controlling the pace from then on.
Wilms was first off the bike, with Sanchez hot on her heels, before Sanchez retook the lead early on the 21.1km run and didn’t back, extending her lead on the way to the finish line.
“I couldn’t imagine a better race, the target was to qualify for next year’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, my home, so to take the win as well is something beyond words,” said Sanchez. “It was a very good race for me, I was really focused all of the time, my mind was really into the race, I’ve been racing a lot of Ironman distance so this felt quite short, so I just kept that focus until the end.”
Sanchez headed to Western Australia off the back of a number of strong performances, including a sixth at the IM World Championship in France in September and a win at Ironman Barcelona last month.
“This year I don’t have words for it, I’m just really happy and I’m just trying to improve every year and let’s just see how next year goes,” she said. “This race gives me a lot of confidence, I’ve been training for the last block at altitude in Kenya so this is quite a good result.
“I expected it to be quite hot but for me it was the perfect weather, the water was a bit choppy but I really enjoyed it and then the bike was really fast. I have my Mum here and this week I have been involved with the local community so I heard my name all throughout the run which was a motivation. It was incredible to arrive to the finish line and have my closest friends and family there,” said Sanchez.
