Panama City Beach and Florida’s Panhandle welcomed nearly 1,400 athletes to the region to take on the 2023 Visit Panama City Beach IRONMAN® 70.3® Gulf Coast triathlon on Saturday, May 13. The event also featured a male’s professional race that saw Sam Long (USA) crowned champion with an overall time of 3:36:00. Today’s victory by Sam Long marked his second victory in just one weeks’ time having also won the Intermountain Health IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship St. George triathlon on May 6. In-depth race coverage of the Visit Panama City Beach IRONMAN 70.3 Gulf Coast triathlon was shown live on Outside TV, and was the third in a series of 12 IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon events from across globe to be broadcast exclusively on the platform. To watch a replay of the race, visit watch.outsideonline.com/live-events/ironman-70-3.
Long exited the swim in 12th place, 3:41 back from the leader. Long used a powerful bike split to climb up the leaderboard and enter the second transition area in first place. Lionel Sanders (CAN) who found himself in a similar situation as Long, exited the water in 13th but he too clawed his way back for a strong second-place finish in the men’s race with a finishing time of 3:39:56. Rounding out the podium with his second third-place finish in a week was Jackson Laundry (CAN) with a finishing time of 3:42:24.
The 2023 Visit Panama City Beach IRONMAN 70.3 Gulf Coast triathlon saw nearly 1,400 athletes start the race. The race consisted of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run through Panama City Beach and the surrounding areas. The swim took place in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Once out of the water, athletes transitioned to the bike for a single-loop, flat and fast ride. Closing out their 70.3-mile journey, the three-loop run course is also flat and fast and athletes were able to run along the shoreline before finishing to an energetic finish line at Edgewater Beach & Golf Resort. The 2023 Visit Panama City Beach IRONMAN 70.3 Gulf Coast offered 30 coveted age-group qualifying slots for the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship on August 26-27 in Lahti, Finland.
1 Sam Long USA 3:36:00
2 Lionel Sanders CAN +3:56
3 Jackson Laundry CAN +6:23
4 Tim O'Donnell USA +9:07
5 Trevor Foley USA +10:06