Duffy Dominates
We have seen Flora Duffy race so well during this past year, so it’s no surprise that she took her first ever WTS gold in Stockholm this past weekend. The Olympic-bound Bermudian wasted no time after getting out of the water behind the leaders and turned on her blazing biking legs.
Duffy quickly found herself in the lead and alone for roughly nine grueling laps. Heading into the final transition, Duffy showed she was a force to be reckoned with and let her running legs do the rest of the talking as she hit the finish line in a winning time of 2:03:38. Andrea Hewitt followed in second and Helen Jenkins in third.
Duffy told on-the-scene reporter Chelsea White that she had “been trying and trying to win one of these and today when I was out there on the front of the bike I had no idea how it was going to play out. I got off and felt strong on the run and just ran as best as I could.”
Congrats on your first ever WTS gold, Flora. We can’t wait to see you race in Rio!
Giardini, Goss Grab San Gil Titles
Davide Giardini has been knocking at the winner’s door for some time now, and over the weekend at Challenge San Gil, it was finally answered. The uber-swimmer led out of the water in 23:38 and didn’t look back.
Thanks to a bike split of 2:15:32 and a half marathon time of 1:23:28, Giardini was able to take the win by over two minutes in 4:07:07.
Finishing second was Nathan Kilam (4:09:40) and rounding out the podium was Vincio Ibarra (4:11:51). Not far behind was Boulder’s A.J. Baucco who had a solid day, finishing sixth in 4:15:51.
On the women’s side, a repeat champion—Boulder’s Lauren Goss—was crowned in a winning time of 4:36:41. Goss came blazing out of the water with the fastest women’s swim of the day (25:09), which she followed with the second fastest bike split (1:54:32), and then capped off with the fastest run split (1:26:20).
All of this made her almost untouchable. Goss took the finisher’s tape with almost six minutes to spare ahead of second place finisher Palmira Alverez. Finishing in third place for the women was Carolina Furriela.
Congrats to both our men’s and women’s champions and all who raced!
Leiferman Returns to Podium
I realize I’m a weekend behind in this recap, but we had to mention Colorado’s Chris Leiferman who is making quite a name for himself at the 70.3 distance.
After an amazing comeback at 70.3 Boulder where he captured second place, Leiferman continued to prove that he is a force to be reckoned with as he grabbed the final podium spot at IRONMAN 70.3 Mont-Tremblant at the end of June.
His second fastest bike time (2:07:12) and his third fastest run time (1:17:33) gave him almost a four-minute cushion before hitting the finishing chute in a time of 3:53:25.
Boulder’s Paul Matthews turned in a solid day coming in sixth in a time of 4:01:42. Great job, guys!