Igor Amorelli did what no other Brazilian male has been able accomplish for 16 years—win his home country’s IRONMAN, event, while it took a course record effort by Sara Gross to record her first IRONMAN victory.
Amorelli’s emotional win
Luiz Francisco (BRA) exiting the water first, with 14- and 17-second leads over Harry Wiltshire (GBR) and prerace favourite, Igor Amorelli (BRA). The remainder of the field was over a minute back with five-time IRONMAN France champion, Marcel Zamora (ESP) and Santiago Ascenco (BRA) sitting just over two minutes back from the leaders.
Once on the bike, Amorelli put his stamp on the race by cycling hard for the opening half of the ride, with Ascenco and Zamora in hot pursuit. Amorelli managed to put over six minutes on Ascenco and Zamora in the opening half of the bike, but paid for his effort in the closing 90 km. Ascenco clawed back all but 47 seconds of Amorelli's earlier lead heading into T2, with Zamora unable to undo the six minutes he spotted the leader in the first 90 km of the bike. The remainder of the field was looking at least 19 minutes to overcome.
Exiting the transition virtually together, Amorelli and Ascenco stayed together through the first 25 km of the run, with the exception a few surges by each. Eventually Amorelli made a move that Ascenco could not answer and started to slowly pull away from his countryman. Hammering out a race-best 2:52:07 run helped Amorelli capture his first IRONMAN title, a win he has dreamt about since he started triathlon. His finishing time was 8:07:54. Ascenco followed Amorelli 3:38 later, with Zamora rounding out the podium in 8:16:16.
"The first triathlon I watched was IRONMAN Brazil and this win is what I have dreamt of," said Amorilli after the race. The win for Amorelli also confirmed that his solid 13th place finish at his first start at the IRONMAN World Championship last October was no fluke.
Gross rock solid all day
Lucie Zelenkova (ROM) put all the women on notice that she would be tough to beat when she stroked to a 52:04 swim time, which earned her sizable advantage over her closest rivals. Vanessa Gianinni (BRA), Anna Lida Borba, Sara Gross (CAN) and Sofie Goos spotted Zelenkova over four minutes.
Once on the bike, Zelenkova managed to fight off all challenges, keeping Goos, Gross, Borba and Mariana Borges (BRA) at bay until somewhere after 140 km when she faltered and a chase group of five swallowed her up. Coming into T2, Gianinni led a group of five (Borba, Goos, Gross, Borges and Zelenkova) off the bike within 1:45 of each other.
Once the run started, Gross appeared to have a bounce in her step and quickly moved to the front. Goos was reluctant to let Gross too far out of her sights and remained a minute back, keeping the heat on Gross should she show any signs of weakening signs after competing at IRONMAN Texas seven days earlier. Gross was able to methodically stretch out her lead for the entire marathon and broke the course record in 8:56:35, taking her first IRONMAN win. Goos came across the line 3:46 later for second, while a thrilled Monticeli claimed third place overall with her time of 9:02:44.
Photos by Robbie Little: FinsherPix.com Top 5 Men
1 Igor Amorelli BRA 0:47:38 5:13:44 2:52:07 8:07:54
2 Santiago Ascenco BRA 0:51:08 4:20:44 2:55:43 8:11:46
3 Marcel Zamora ESP 0:50:49 4:26:41 2:53:22 8:16:16
4 Harry Wiltshire GBR 0:47:50 5:32:43 2:58:17 8:32:34
5 Petr Vabrousek CZE 0:55:31 4:34:24 2:57:23 8:33:16
Top 5 Women
1 Sara Gross CAN 0:55:41 4:49:42 3:06:12 8:56:35
2 Sofie Goos BEL 0:56:41 4:49:24 3:09:41 9:00:21
3 Ariane Monticeli BRA 0:59:28 4:55:21 3:02:53 9:02:44
4 Vanessa Gianinni BRA 0:55:14 4:49:47 3:15:53 9:06:12
5 Lisa Roberts - Ribes USA 1:01:46 4:50:13 3:09:19 9:07:42