Mexican Mauricio Mendez along with Radka Kahlefeldt (Czech Republic), brought Australian’s dominance to an end as they won at their respective races in today’s IRONMAN 70.3 which took place at the Azuela Cove in Davao City, Philippines.
Mendez, 22, after a slow start in the swim segment where we placed himself in the fifth position, he beat the heat in the final kilometers of the 1.9K swim, 90K bike, 21K run event to take his first crown of an Ironman 70.3 race in the Philippines in only 3:50:32.
“That was a hard battle. I was in second place until the final 13 kms. The effort was just too hard,” the Xterra world champion, Mendez, said.
Second place went to Tim Reed who clocked 3:52:26 while Tim Van Berkel took third in 3:53:45. He was followed by five-time world champion Craig Alexander from Australia who finished in 3:56:24.
Women’s dominance
Kahlefeldt was able to dominate the women’s pro side by completing the race in 4:25:38. Since in the beginning of the event, Kahlefeldt came out on top in the swim segment and kept this impressive result in place by creating an 11-minute gap from Japanese Naomi Washizu. She took the runner-up honors by clocking 4:36:53 while Dimity Lee Duke, veteran Philippine champion, took third in 4:39:12.
As for Australian Lisa Tyack, today’s IRONMAN 70.3 marked her first pro race. She clocked 4:41:01 and placed herself fourth.
