JAN Frodeno reclaimed the Ironman 70.3 World Championship title yesterday in a thrilling race that pitted world champions and world beaters against each other.
Just as in 2015 when the German last won, Bahrain Endurance athletes also occupied all steps of the podium as Alistair Brownlee from Great Britain and Javier Gomez from Spain took second and third respectively.
Ben Kanute was fourth after a tough run battle against Pieter Heemeryck and Sam Appleton.
Frodeno emerged shoulder-to-shoulder with Kanute after the 1.9km ocean swim in 21:52, with Gomez and Brownlee following just seconds later.
Speedy
This made for a very speedy 90km cycling which Brownlee finished in 2:04.30 among the lead group of six athletes. But with a spread of only 10 seconds between first and sixth off the bike, it was a race to be decided on the run.
As if Frodeno wanted to prove he could beat Brownlee and Gomez in a foot race, he drew first blood with the faster transition and was first out onto the half marathon run course just ahead of Brownlee.
Meanwhile, Gomez had stayed in touch inside the lead group. Once he found his rhythm, he moved into third place with the fastest five-kilometer split, an average of 3:03 minutes per km.
Gomez attempted to surge past Frodeno, but the latter refused to let him go. By the 10th km Frodeno and Gomez were running side-by-side, while Brownlee had dropped off the pace into third.
The fierce competition between the athletes produced 10km splits of 31:24 for Gomez and 31:38 for Frodeno.
But Gomez started suffering from cramps, allowing Frodeno to break free of their Iron War-reminiscent run battle.
Brownlee recovered his composure and capitalised on Gomez’s momentary weakness to run into second. But both ran out of road to move further up the leader board as Frodeno stopped the clock at 3:36.30 with a sensational 1:06.33 run.
Frodeno grew up in South Africa and considers the win here very special.
“For the first time in six years I’ve been back. To come here is special for one, but to come back and perform in front of a ‘second home’ crowd is just epic.”
Frodeno and Gomez will now commence their final training for the Ironman World Championship.
Obviously I want to win, but I gave it everything today and I’m happy with that,” said Brownlee mused.
"To be honest, I’ve had a tough year this year with injuries and a few things and just not been myself, so basically the last three or four weeks is the only training I’ve done really.”
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