Steffen wins Ironman 70.3 Vietnam

Manama : Switzerland’s Caroline Steffen was victorious at Ironman 70.3 Vietnam, Fredrik Croneborg finally broke through to win Challenge Taiwan, and Ben Hoffman and Brent McMahon overcame adverse conditions at Ironman 70.3 St. George, Utah, US to finish strongly.

Steffen (four hours 12 minutes 18 seconds) a proven master of racing in Asia’s heat and humidity, defeated big rivals Radka Vodickova and Liz Blatchford as she exited the water mere seconds behind the Czech and the Aussie, taking the lead and pushing the pace on the bike, and finally pulling way ahead on the run with the fourth fastest run split to defend her title and finish as sixth overall.

“I am over the moon to win Ironman 70.3 Vietnam for the second time. I knew coming into this race I was in good shape and I really wanted to defend my title in a race that is very close to my heart as it supports the charity Vietnam Newborns,” Steffen said.

Croneborg claimed his comeback from a chronic foot injury with the top spot at Challenge Taiwan, doing most of the work on the marathon leg of the full distance triathlon.

He came out of the water six minutes behind two-time winner Dylan McNeice and Patrick Evoe. Misfortune struck on the bike course at kilometre 36 when he got a flat tire, but a quick repair and some hard work helped minimise the damage to only four minutes down at the bike-to-run transition. “The run was hot and both Dylan and Patrick were struggling,” he recalled. “I moved into the lead around the 13km mark and kept it from there to the finish and after third place in 2013 and second place in 2014, it was nice to make the top placing.”

In stark contrast to the soaring mercury in Asia, Ironman 70.3 St.George in Utah, US was cold and wet and McMahon and Hoffman made the best of the circumstances to finish 5th and 12th respectively on the day.

McMahon called it a “make-you-a-hard-man kind of day.” He said, “We had a bit of wind, rain, cool weather which started with a cold swim. I was tough and also a little chilly on the bike.”

The rain on the bike course made handling challenging. After winning the Ironman African Championship last month in South Africa, Hoffman struggled a bit more.