In a closely fought battle, Sebastian Kienle showed his rivals how he earned the 2014 IRONMAN World Champion title, at Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga in Texas, USA.
Heather Jackson set up a blistering no women could match on the bike for a huge lead in capturing the women’s title.
Sebastian Kienle showing good form
Russia’s Ivan Tutukin was first to emerge form the point-to-point swim in the Tennessee River with a pack of eight trailing him eight to 18 seconds later. The chase pack included Sammy Appleton (AUS), Christian Kramer (DEU), Kevin Rayan (USA), Kyle Buckingham (ZAF), and Sebastian Kienle (DEU).
Once on the bike, Kienle quickly moved to the front of the race with Appleton being the only one to come close to matching the two-time IRONMAN 70.3 world champion’s pace. The Kienle-Appleton runaway train stormed into T2 within seconds of each other and with almost 8-minute advantages on Buckingham and American Russell who were in a close-pack of six.
Appleton kept the 2014 IRONMAN world champion in his sights early, but Kienle steadily expanded his lead by knocking off 5:50-minute miles throughout the 13.1-mile run.
At the finish line, Kienle was able to cruise his run in for the closing miles to capture the title with a 1:59 winning margin over Appleton and 6:17 over Tutukin. Tutukin, a former ITU athlete, tried to unleash a blistering fast but could only finish third on the podium.
Heather Jackson on a mission in Tennessee
Magali Tisseyre’s (CAN) 25:15 swim earned her 30-second leads on Jeanni Seymour (ZAF), Katie Thomas (USA), Ashley Clifford (USA) and Mirinda Carfrae (AUS). Heather Jackson (USA), one of the pre-race favourites, exited the river one minute behind the leader, but well positioned considering her bike and run prowess.
It didn’t take Jackson long to get to the front of the race in the early miles of the bike and build up a two-minute gap on Tisseyre by 30 miles. Another minute back, Seymour, Barnett, and Carfrae tried to limited their losses to the hard driving Jackson up front.
At the dismount line, Jackson had what looked like insurmountable leads of five to nine minutes on the rest.
In the open half of the run no one was able to eat into the Jackson’s lead. After six miles, Tissyere was looking at a seven-minute deficit while Carfare would overtake Seymour and Barnett for a solid hold of third.
In the final miles, Jackson was able to take her foot off the gas and claim the win comfortably over Tisseyre (6:38) and Carfrae (7:37) who finished second and third.
Top 5 Pro Men
| 1 | Kienle, Sebastian | DEU | 0:23:08 | 2:03:30 | 1:16:15 | 3:46:48 |
| 2 | Appleton, Sam | AUS | 0:23:00 | 2:03:57 | 1:18:12 | 3:48:46 |
| 3 | Tutukin, Ivan | RUS | 0:22:53 | 2:12:35 | 1:13:40 | 3:53:05 |
| 4 | Park, Justin | USA | 0:24:33 | 2:12:14 | 1:16:23 | 3:57:34 |
| 5 | Russell, Matt | USA | 0:25:42 | 2:08:44 | 1:19:08 | 3:57:51 |
Top 5 Pro Women
| 1 | Jackson, Heather | USA | 0:26:14 | 2:17:38 | 1:24:03 | 4:11:56 |
| 2 | Tisseyre, Magali | CAN | 0:25:15 | 2:23:24 | 1:25:19 | 4:18:33 |
| 3 | Carfrae, Mirinda | AUS | 0:25:48 | 2:27:02 | 1:22:32 | 4:19:32 |
| 4 | Seymour, Jeanni | ZAF | 0:25:37 | 2:27:02 | 1:24:14 | 4:21:12 |
| 5 | Barnett, Lauren | USA | 0:26:37 | 2:23:44 | 1:26:39 | 4:21:22 |
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