British star Alistair Brownlee perfectly executed his first-ever IRONMAN. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was hoping for a fast swim at the inaugural IRONMAN Ireland, but the air and water temperatures were too low to start the swim portion. With the swim was cancelled and local hero Bryan McCrystal nailed a great bike ride through stormy conditions. Brownlee kept cool and made the decisive pass on the late stages of of the run. "That last 10 k were not fun at all," Brownlee said after his win.
Thanks to a very solid run performance, Switzerland's Emma Bilham took the win in the women’s race in 8:50:18 by a wide margin over Pleuni Hooijman (NED)
Men's Podium
1 Brownlee, Alistair GBR 7:44:16
2 McCrystal, Bryan IRL 7:49:45
3 Thomschke, Markus DEU 7:58:10
Women's Podium
1 Bilham, Emma CHE 8:50:18
2 Hooijman, Pleuni NED 9:19:50
3 Wendorff, Amanda USA 9:28:32