Set in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, a small city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, the inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 Victoria triathlon showcased the graciousness of Victoria and its surrounding communities.
Russell runs his way to the win
In the men’s race it was fitting that a Andrew Russell (CAN) who lives and trains in Victoria, was the winner of first IRONMAN 70.3 event in the city. Russell exited the water just seconds behind IronmanLive host, Matt Leito (USA) and Josh Seifarth (CAN).
Lieto was first off the bike with Russell trailing by 1:47. Russell’s race-best run launched the seven year Canadian national team member into the lead and on to capture the win in 3:58:25. Lieto finished second after holding off a late challenge by Stephen Kilshaw (CAN), who rounded out the podium.
Thibodeau does it wire-to-wire
In the women’s race it was a start-to-finish win by Karen Thibodeau (CAN). Thibodeau hit the beach at Elk Lake in first place with her 25:37 swim, which put her 2:50 and 3:52 ahead of Christine Fletcher (CAN) and Mackenzie Madison (USA).
Once on the bike, Madison cycled her way into second and closed the gap to four seconds behind Thibodeau as the women headed into T2. However, that would be as close as Madison would get to the lead as Thibodeau had the fastest run and went on to capture the win in 4:30:34, with Madison following the winner across the finish line 3:41 later, while Janet Neilsen (CAN) claimed the final podium placing.
Top Pro Men
1 Andrew Russell CAN 3:58:25
2 Matt Lieto USA 4:01:40
3 Stephen Kilshaw CAN 4:01:52
Top Pro Women
1 Karen Thibodeau CAN 4:30:36
2 Mackenzie Madison USA 4:34:16
3 Janet Neilsen CAN 4:53:07