Kirsty Mckenzie
THE sun shone for the 1,500 athletes taking the plunge on the Costa del Sol for the first Ironman in Marbella since the outbreak of coronavirus.
Athletes from over 60 different countries competed in the Ironman 70.3 on Sunday, with Brits dominating the podium.
In the women’s race, Brit Lucy Byram and Anouska Greenaway were out of the water and onto the bike in Puerto Banus. This duo kept up their top spots throughout the competition, right until they laced up their racing flats and hit the finish line in first and third place, respectively.
Byram and Greenaway were joined on the podium by Anna-Kisa Pietilanine from Finland, who finished in second place, almost 38 minutes after Bryam.
Her first time competing in the Costa del Sol, Byram completed swimming in 28:31, cycling in 2:48:41 and running in 1:28:56.
She said that her best section was ‘swimming, with a great water temperature’ but admitted that she found cycling very challenging.
The first leg of the competition, a 1,900-metre swim in 20C water, began at 8am before racers were tasked with riding a 90-kilometer road-race from Puerto Banus to Cartama.
In the men’s race, Swiss Patrick Cometta was first out of the water after just 29:05 before cycling 90 kilometers in 2:24:47 and completing a half marathon in just 1:23:42.
His total time of 4:22:23 was just one minute and 38 seconds ahead of Geert Lauryseen, from Belgium, who came in second. Third place went to German Lucas Worth.
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