Belgium’s Marino Vanhoenacker and Kaisa Lehtonen from Finland took impressive wins at the IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun.
Marino Vanhoenacker and the triathlon nation of Austria have a strong relationship. The eight-time IRONMAN Austria champ came back to IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun willing to celebrate another great victory after taking this race in 2014. Vanhoenacker was the last one to win here before the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship touched down in Zell am See last year.
This time, the Belgian already had a pretty good start into the race few weeks after celebrating his 40th birthday. No doubt, Germany’s extraordinarily talented swimmer Lukasz Wojt hammered away in Lake Zell and exited the water in 22:27, almost 10 seconds ahead of the strong Swiss swimmer, Manuel Kueng. But Kueng reached T1 in front of a group of eight including Vanhoenacker who immediately took over the race.
After only a third of the stunning and extremely tough bike course in the Austrian Alps, Vanhoenacker made his move to the front and embarked on a fantastic solo ride. He got off the bike 4:28 over Wojt who could already hear the sound of another bike when he entered transition. Markus Thomschke (GER) was only 20 seconds down and moved into runner-up position after 7 kilometers of the run. Wojt started to struggle after that pass was made, and Brit Stuart Hayes ran into third very soon while Vanhoenacker kept his pace to take the title again.
Kaisa Lehtonen from Finland was the clear favorite in the women’s race after winning the IRONMAN South African Championship in April. The 35-year-old seems to be on her way to perform at her personal maximum at the IRONMAN World Championship on October 8, and people were allowed to see in Zell what she might be capable of in Kona.
Lehtonen came out nearly 3 minutes behind Brit Kate Comber in the water. She started out on the tough bike course together with five-time IRONMAN France champion Tine Deckers. Emma Pallant (GBR) was in between Comber and Lehtonen after the swim, and it took Lehtonen less than 20 kilometers to make up more than a minute on Pallant. After 60 kilometers, she eventually caught up with Comber and sailed away with the fastest bike split.
Thanks to the best run split by far, Lehtonen never had to look back. IRONMAN Lanzarote champion Tine Holst proved her bike strength, taking over second place on the final part of the cycling course. She started into the run about 30 seconds ahead of Pallant and directly into a hard fought battle with her British shadow. It was back and forth between those two, until Holst made the decisive attack for silver with 5 kilometers to go.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Vanhoenacker, Marino BEL 0:24:30-2:12:54-1:23:12-4:06:05
2 Hayes, Stuart GBR 0:24:30-2:20:03-1:21:15-4:11:23
3 Thomschke, Markus GER 0:25:44-2:16:12-1:23:56-4:11:36
4 Schmid, Stefan GER 0:25:47-2:18:34-1:23:13-4:13:23
5 Ruenz, Michael GER 0:27:39-2:21:33-1:19:20-4:14:42
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Lehtonen, Kaisa FIN 0:28:44-2:30:55-1:25:14-4:30:11
2 Holst, Tine DEN 0:29:48-2:31:24-1:29:20-4:37:00
3 Pallant, Emma GBR 0:27:34-2:35:08-1:30:24-4:38:17
4 Tondeur, Alexandra BEL 0:29:51-2:34:36-1:31:21-4:41:20
5 Polak, Kamila AUT 0:29:52-2:44:46-1:37:27-4:58:08