There was Swiss domination at the IRONMAN 70.3 Switzerland: in both races, four athletes in the top five came from home soil.
Daniela Ryf and Ruedi Wild controlled the race at the 10th edition of the IRONMAN 70.3 Switzerland. They both took the win in a very Swiss-coloured race thanks to strong running performances on a hot day, but they celebrated their victories in a completely different way.
After about 40 kilometers of the bike course, a Swiss pack of four athletes bound together in the men’s race to break away from the rest of the field. Wild and his fellow countrymen Manuel Kueng, Jan van Berkel and Sven Riederer made their way together towards T2. South African James Cunnama was 2:20 behind those four when he hit the second transition, co-favorite Ronnie Schildknecht was about 4 minutes down. It looked like this Swiss train at the front was unstoppable. While Wild, already winner in 2015, had a solid run to take the win, Cunnama stormed on the second half of the course. He nailed the fastest split to take runner-up position.
In the women’s race, the storybook looked a bit similar as in the past few IRONMAN 70.3 events Daniela Ryf has taken part in. The Swiss dominator was among the leaders during the swim, paced herself very solid on the bike, and let the hammer go down on the run. Ryf didn’t complain about Nina Derron on the bike, knowing that her momentum would come later on the run. After 14 kilometers, the two-time IRONMAN world champ made the decisive pass to take her fourth win in a row in Rapperswil-Jona.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Ruedi Wild SUI 0:23:48…2:07:56…1:14:36…3:49:38
2 James Cunnama RSA 0:23:50…2:09:40…1:13:49…3:51:06
3 Sven Riederer SUI 0:23:08…2:08:30…1:16:58…3:51:54
4 Jan van Berkel SUI 0:23:55…2:07:54…1:19:32…3:54:21
5 Manuel Kueng SUI 0:23:06…2:08:22…1:20:24….3:55:10
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Daniela Ryf SUI 0:25:53…2:29:16…1:25:06…4:23:46
2 Emma Bilham SUI 0:26:55…2:31:24…1:25:26…4:27:17
3 Nina Derron SUI 0:25:54…2:26:57…1:31:42…4:28:02
4 Bianca Steurer AUT 0:27:25…2:30:02…1:30:27…4:31:39
5 Regula Rohrbach SUI 0:27:29…2:24:43…1:39:14…4:35:49