Ronnie Schildknecht from Switzerland powered to the Ironman South Africa title in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on Sunday.
Jessie Donavan, from the United States, came from behind in the women’s category to take her inaugural Ironman title.
Spain’s Jon Unanue showed what he can do in the water, grabbing a slight advantage heading into T1 with a swim split of 49:16.
He was closely followed by the Netherlands’ Bas Diederen (49:26) and Austria’s Berger Dominik (49:28.)
Germany’s much-lauded Faris Al-Sultan tailed the leading bunch closely along with eventual winner Schildknecht and South African favourite James Cunnama slightly farther behind.
Al-Sultan proved why he is an Ironman household name as he took the lead before the 40km mark.
Heading onto the second loop on the bike Al-Sultan held his lead while chasers Schildknecht and Cunnama moved into second and third respectively by the 75km mark.
At the 100km mark, Schildknecht had steadily whittled down Al-Sultan’s fragile lead and made his move.
Shortly after going onto the third loop, Al-Sultan was experiencing technical problems on the bike and withdrew from the race.
Schildknecht pushed his lead, heading first into T2 with an 11-minute gap ahead of Cunnama, who entered T2 with a large group of athletes including Aigroz, Diederen, Georg Swoboda (AUT), François Chabaud (FRA) and Hervé Faure (FRA).
After eight kilometres of the run, Cunnama, who had fallen to seventh, pulled out of the race, leaving Diederen and Viennot to make up time against the efficient Schildknecht.
His lead proved to be too much in the end and the eight-time Ironman Switzerland winner added the Spec-Savers Ironman SA title to his name with a time of 8:11:23.
He was eight minutes ahead of second-placed Viennot, who repeated his 2012 feat in 8:19:50. Bas Diederen took third with a time of 8:20:08.
Great Britain’s Jodie Swallow put on a dominant display, but America’s Donavan stole the headlines to take her first Ironman title in Port Elizabeth. – triathlete-europe
