It’s a triple joy for Bahrain Endurance 13
Manama : Bahrain Endurance 13 celebrated a triple triumph this weekend, with Ben Hoffman and Daniela Ryf taking top honours at the Ironman African Championship and Holly Lawrence in her first race on the team winning Ironman 70.3 Oceanside.
Hoffman’s successful title defence was an unexpected bonus as the American logged a new course record and the first sub-8 hour finish on African soil.
“I exceeded all my expectations and that wasn’t even on my radar,” he said.
He exited the 3.8km swim course a little more than a minute behind super swimmer Josh Amberger. Even as former professional cyclist Cameron Wurf blasted ahead through the 180-kilometer cycle course leading by three minutes, Hoffman stayed controlled in the chase group along with Amberger and Nils Frommhold.
Once on the marathon, the real race was on between Frommhold and Hoffman. Frommhold, a previous winner, always stayed within a 30-second gap spurring Hoffman to keep pushing towards a finish time of 7 hours:58 minutes 39 seconds.
“There’s no doubt that he pushed me to my limit and my best performance on the day for sure,” said Hoffman.
“I knew I did the training and I knew I was ready, but I just had to execute and continue to believe in myself. There were definitely a few moments on the run where I started to doubt myself but the crowd support out here lifted me up and I knew there was no question I was coming back to defend, and it’s been a year now and absolutely no regrets and I hope to come back another time next year and defend again.”
On the women’s side, Ryf was tipped to break Chrissie Wellington’s 2011 record of (8:33:56) on a slightly different course. however Ryf (8:47:01) was good enough for the win ahead of defending champion Kaisa Lehtonen in second place by seven minutes.
Ryf exited the water in front, but sat in fourth on the bike until the 133rd kilometer when she made her move to the front and never looked back ahead of her chasers by three minutes leading into transition and continuing to build the lead from there until the finish line.
She said, “I’m super happy and also a big thank you to the crowd today who cheered me on and really happy I came here to South Africa to celebrate such a great win.”
At Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, Lawrence similarly dominated the women’s field. The Ironman 70.3 world champion used this race to knock off the rust after an off-season and long build-up. “This is my first race this season and nearly six months six months. Even though training’s been going well, you never really know how it’s going to go. I haven’t gone that fast for that long for a very long time,” she said.
The California-based triathlete from Great Britain exited the 1.9-kilometer swim on the shoulder of swim leader Jennifer Spieldenner, but took to the front on the 90-kilometer bike ride and recorded the day’s fastest half-marathon to cross the finish line nine minutes ahead of second-placed Ellie Salthouse.
In China, Fredrik Croneborg struggled with the temperatures at Ironman 70.3 Liuzhou with temperatures at 15 degrees Celsius in the water and less than 10 degrees at the start of the bike leg. The Phuket-based Swede toughed through and finished 12th.
With the year’s racing season heating up, next weekend Javier Gomez will toe the starting line at WTS Gold Coast.
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