It wasn’t really a question for the crowd at the IRONMAN 70.3 Barcelona whether Jan Frodeno, the two-time IRONMAN world champ and 2008 Olympic champion would take the win. But this was not an easy win to take for Frodeno, because the race was tough—thanks to his training buddy Nick Kastelein (AUS), who pushed really hard in each discipline, and Bertrand Billard from France who hammered early on the bike.
Spaniard Francesc Godoy managed the fastest swim in 22:47. He was only a second quicker than Frodeno, and both were sprinting at the front of a strong group out of the water. A few kilometers into the bike course, Billard attacked and moved to the front. Through half of the tough course, he had opened up a gap of a little more than 3 minutes on the top favorites. When the leader reached T2, he was 4 minutes ahead of Frodeno, it was way to less to hold one of the best runners off. After about half of the run, Frodeno made the decisive pass and ran straight to the win in front of his friend Kastelein and Russia’s Ivan Tutukin.
Emma Pallant made her way to the victory on the run course, too. On the bike, it was Catherine Jameson who stormed away like her British colleague Lucy Charles had done the day before winning the IRONMAN Lanzarote. Jameson had the best swim in 24:34 and opened up a gap of 3 minutes on the first 20 kilometers of the bike. But the longer the race was going, the smaller Jameson’s advantage seemed to be. She led women’s race into T2, but after about 5 kilometers of the run, Emma Pallant moved powerful into first place. The former track runner ran the victory home in front of another strong British athlete, Natalie Seymour, who ranked third at Pays d’Aix the week before.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Frodeno, Jan DEU 0:22:48…2:25:18…1:11:58…4:03:45
2 Kastelein, Nick AUS 0:22:56…2:25:55…1:13:13…4:06:03
3 Tutukin, Ivan RUS 0:23:55…2:26:37…1:13:34…4:07:54
4 Van Lierde, Frederik BEL 0:23:56…2:26:53…1:15:48…4:10:31
5 Billard, Bertrand FRA 0:22:55…2:21:13…1:23:36…4:11:52
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Pallant, Emma GBR 0:27:12…2:46:02…1:22:35…4:40:03
2 Seymour, Natalie GBR 0:28:09…2:45:11…1:25:04…4:43:06
3 Morel, Charlotte FRA 0:25:13…2:50:06…1:26:03…4:45:53
4 Loehr Muñoz, Sara ESP 0:28:11…2:49:04…1:24:34…4:46:31
5 Deckers, Tine BEL 0:29:11…2:46:38…1:28:24…4:48:35