Spain’s Marta Sanchez has actually won Ironman South Africa after an interesting race. In a race in which a number of females were close together, it was the Spanish who kept her head cool best and struck in the closing phases.
Throughout the swim, it was Sanchez who right away determined the rate and swam so difficult that nobody might follow. After 52:18 minutes, she had actually had her 3.8-kilometer swim and after that it was more than a four-minute wait before Britain’s Susie Cheetham was 2nd to her bike. A couple of seconds later on followed Daniela Ryf and likewise Marlene de Boer, while a couple of seconds later on Daniela Bleymehl followed in 5th position. Emma Bilham came out of the water in 6th and after that it was Diede Diederiks who began the bike after 59:25 minutes and in seventh position.
On the bike, the field at first got better and more detailed together, and it was quickly clear that Sanchez might not preserve her minutes lead. This was primarily due to Bleymehl, who rode extremely strong and took control of the lead of the race after about sixty kilometers. The females behind changed positions a number of times however it was specifically visible that Ryf might not preserve the rate. She dropped even more back and lost practically time.
When in T2, Bleymehl had actually developed a comfy lead; with 3:51 minutes ahead of Sanchez, 4:34 minutes ahead of Diederiks and 5:27 minutes ahead of De Boer, the German professional athlete changed towards her marathon, while Ryf followed in 5th and was then more than 9 minutes behind.
In the early phases of the marathon, the Dutch Diederiks appeared to have wings; for rather a long period of time she set the greatest speed and currently after 10 kilometers she took control of 2nd position from Sanchez. Diederiks made up substantial time on Bleymehl, and midway through the run there was less than a minute’s margin left for the front-runner. At the very same time, Sanchez did not give up either, as where the Spanish initially lost a long time on Diederiks, she now started to comprise her deficit.
Very little later Sanchez even passed Diederiks once again and Bleymehl was likewise outmaneuvered: after 27 kilometers the very first 3 ladies ran within twenty seconds of each other. After thirty kilometers, the decision in the race was made: Sanchez all of a sudden escaped from Diederiks at a high speed, while Bleymehl simply sloped entirely. This appeared to settle the fight for gold and silver in favor of the Spanish professional athlete, while Zimmerman had actually gone up to 3rd postion.
Sanchez won the race in a time of 9:15:36. Diederiks took 2nd location in 9:17:52 and Zimmermann was 3rd in 9:19:12.