Both in their home country – Australia – and both with a margin of approximately three minutes: Jake Birtwhistle and Natalie van Coevorden won Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney last night (European time). Both athletes managed to clinch the race during the concluding half marathon.

In Birtwhistle’s case, he had to settle scores with Cameron Wurf, Josh Ferris, Ivan Abele, and Trent Thorpe. After 1.9 kilometers of swimming and 90 kilometers of biking, this quartet was still together with Birtwhistle, meaning five men had to decide the battle during the final 21.1 kilometers of running. Birtwhistle immediately stepped on the gas, and only Ferris could keep up with him for a short while. After five kilometers, however, the gap between the two was twenty seconds, and that lead would slowly but surely only continue to grow.

Birtwhistle won the race – which was attended almost exclusively by Australians and New Zealanders – in a time of 3:32:59. Ferris eventually dropped back significantly, and it was Thorpe who took second place in 3:35:58. Jarrod Osborne, who made a strong move forward during the run, finished third in 3:37:54.

Women’s Race

In the women’s field, it was Van Coevorden who claimed victory, and she also had to shake off several competitors at the start of the final half marathon. In T2, Van Coevorden found herself surrounded by Ellie Salthouse and Regan Hollioake. During the first few kilometers of the run, Salthouse actually took the lead, but her advantage never grew more than a few seconds over Van Coevorden, while Hollioake was dropped almost immediately.

Nevertheless, Van Coevorden didn’t need much time to turn the race in her favor; after five kilometers, she was the woman in the lead already, and the handful of seconds she held then grew steadily from that point on.

Van Coevorden won in 4:00:58, Salthouse finished second in 4:04:00, and Hollioake took third in 4:06:28.