It was ‘yo-yo’ time once again, as Sam Long didn’t just win Ironman 70.3 Boise – he simply dominated it. In the women’s race, Belgium’s Hanne de Vet seemed set for victory for a long time, but it was ultimately the American Kirsten Kasper who crowned a fantastic comeback effort with a beautiful victory.
Naturally, Long had to go on the hunt to secure the win, as the American famously never comes out of the water first. Today was no exception, with Swiss athlete Ben Faeh leading the way out of the swim in 23:34. He was followed immediately by Vincent Luis, meaning one of the biggest favorites was right at the front heading onto the bike. Long exited the water in 20th place, facing a deficit of 2:32.
For many athletes, such a gap would be nearly impossible to bridge, but for Long, it posed no problem at all. Within the first 17 kilometers, he had already surged into fourth place, cutting his deficit down to 1:20. It was the start of a relentless charge forward, and once he reached the front, Long gave no one a chance to hold his wheel. Hammering the pace, Long extended his lead over Faeh to 3:04 by T2, while Luis entered the half marathon in third place with a 4:36 gap to make up.
Luis couldn’t close the gap, as Long proved far too strong on the run as well. While the men behind him faltered – both Luis and Faeh ultimately dropped off the podium into fourth and fifth, respectively – the winner only continued to pull away. Long took the victory in a time of 3:32:25, with Ari Klau taking second in 3:37:21 and Blake Harris finishing third in 3:37:52.
Women’s race: Kirsten Kasper’s spectacular comeback
In the women’s race, Rebecca Clarke posted the fastest swim split with a 25:41, closely followed by Kirsten Kasper, Hanne de Vet, Jenna Campbell, and Hannah Berry. However, these women did not stay together on the bike, as Belgium’s De Vet had other plans and broke away solo. She initially built a modest lead of under 30 seconds, but significantly opened up the gap during the second half of the bike stage. By T2, Berry followed two minutes behind the leader, while Kasper came into transition third, facing a seemingly insurmountable deficit of just over five minutes.
Yet, that deficit proved far from insurmountable. Kasper flew through the run course, taking massive chunks of time out of the lead with every kilometer. At the halfway mark, De Vet was still leading the race, but Berry had closed to within one minute, with Kasper trailing just another minute behind her. It marked the start of a completely new race dynamic; with six kilometers remaining, the top three women were running virtually together, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Kasper was going to take the win.
She crossed the line in 4:00:50 to claim victory. Berry took second place in 4:02:05, with De Vet completing the podium in third with a time of 4:03:29.
