Great times for both Lionel Sanders and Paula Findlay: both athletes very recently won Ironman 70.3 Oceanside and today were the strongest at Ironman 70.3 St. George. With their victories, they go into the books as the last winners of the race, which will cease to exist effective immediately.
In a race that saw big names at the start, Sanders once again proved to be of the outer category and simply inimitable. After the swim he was still a few minutes behind and had dozens of men ahead of him, but already on the bike he rode back to the front of the race and then left everyone behind as well. The Canadian athlete raced so strongly that no one was able to even come close. Sanders won the race in 3:37:54, Sam Long was second in 3:40:08 and Colin Czuch was third in 3:44:04.
It was a great day for the winner in the women’s race as well, although Findlay had to dig deep for it, of course. For a long time she was battling Chelsea Sodaro and especially Vittoria Lopes, but the Brazilian dropped out early in the run. That turned out – in retrospect – to be all the idea: Lopes was injured and had already indicated she would not run more than three kilometers.
For Findlay, that was the moment she definitely could decide the race in her favor: she won in a time of 4:11:06. Danielle Lewis was second in 4:14:12 and Jackie Hering was third in 4:17:06.
