Swiss athlete Max Studer and New Zealander Nicole van der Kaay claimed victory last night (European Time, ed) in the inaugural edition of the recently announced Ironman 70.3 Shanghai. Since the race was only announced a few weeks ago, the professional field was small, but regardless, both Studer and Van der Kaay dominated their respective races.
Studer had a strong start in the swim, clocking 22:28, placing just behind Fan Junjie and Ollie Turner by a few seconds. The gap to the rest of the field was about one and a half minutes, but a completely different lead group formed during the bike leg. Studer and Turner remained in front and were joined by Australian Nicholas Free and American Justin Metzler. These four athletes returned to T2 together with a lead of 3:29 over Caleb Noble and nearly seven minutes over the rest of the field.
On the run, Studer quickly proved his strength by pulling away from his competitors. His lead increased with every kilometer, and he ultimately won in a time of 3:38:03. His victory margin was significant, with Free finishing second in 3:43:48 and Metzler taking third in 3:44:28.
Nicole van der Kaay unstoppable
In the women’s race, the outcome was clear from the start. Van der Kaay completed the swim in 26:27, already building a lead of 1:36 over Wang Siyu and 1:37 over Nina Derron. Her advantage only grew during both the bike and run segments, and she went on to win the race in 4:06:10. Derron came in second at 4:13:17, and Australian Cassandra Heaslip finished third in 4:24:46.
