Potts Claims Fifth Win at IRONMAN 70.3 California

Oceanside, Calif. — Andy Potts (USA) and Heather Jackson (USA) celebrated victories at this year’s Accenture IRONMAN 70.3 California crossing the finish line in 3:49:45 and 4:13:48, respectively. This was Potts fifth win in Oceanside and Jackson’s first after finishing second the last two years.

Despite exiting the water first and finishing the swim two minutes faster than last year, Potts was accompanied by a strong men’s field that saw the top 10 competitors leave T1 within 35 seconds of one another. Potts would give way to Andi Boecherer (GER) in the early stages of the bike course and by T2 Boecherer would have a nearly four-minute advantage heading into the run. Boecherer fought through the run but saw his lead shrink with Jesse Thomas (USA) and Potts pushing hard on the run course. Thomas overtook Boecherer by mile 11 of the run but it was Potts who found an extra gear and pushed through to win by a 10-second difference over Thomas. Boecherer crossed the line minutes later finishing in third.

The professional women saw strong swim performances as Radka Vodickova (CZE) exited the water in first (00:22:17) with Amy Marsh (USA) and Camilla Pedersen (DNK) close behind. At mile five, Pedersen went to the front of the group with Marsh and Vodickova trailing. Marsh and Pedersen pulled away from the rest of the pack and stayed within five-seconds of one another through the first 26 miles of the bike. Unfortunately for them both, it would be Heather Jackson’s (USA) day. After trailing by nearly three minutes coming out of the water, Jackson moved into second place behind Marsh coming out of T2. Jackson then flew through the run portion with a time of 1:17:32 as she earned her first victory at IRONMAN 70.3 California.