Sebastian Kienle wins his second Ironman 70.3 World Championship in 2013

Sebastian Kienle has once again used his class-leading bike leg to take hold of the Ironman 70.3 World Championship and backed it up with a world champion run to hold off the best 70.3 guys in the world.

Finishing second was Kiwi Terenzo Bozzone with Australian Joe Gambles third, Andy Potts 4th and another Australian Tim Reed 5th.

Kienle had to work hard to chase down early race leader Australia’s Joshua Amberger. Amberger showed the world his new Felt IA time trial bike after leading out of the swim and then taking the race to the field for a majority of the bike leg. We heard that Amberger sprained his ankle yesterday so the decision was made to throw everything at the swim and bike.

Chasing Kienle for the title out of T2 was New Zealand’s Terenzo Bozzone who out paced the field in the first lap to leave nothing unanswered as attempted to run down Kienle and posted the fastest run split for the race in the process.

Kienle gave 2:16 to Amberger and over two minutes to the other top swimmers before he set about reeling them in on the bike.

It quickly became evident that Kienle was going to be incredibly hard to beat as he maintained a quick run pace with good form. The main chaser was Bozzone and even though he was running faster it was going to be a matter of whether Kienle blew up rather than if Bozzone would catch him.

The three Australian top ten finishers all had world class performances with Joe Gambles showing that his change to training this year has paid off with this and other top performances in recent times.

Tim Reed showed once again the his power to weight ratio is one of the best in the game. He went on to post the 6th fastest run time and with his 5th overall showed that he is one of the best in the game. Reed had some cramping issues on the run which meant that it was not his usual 100% but he came good and finished as the 5th best 70.3 triathlete in the world.

Leon Griffin had a solid race across the board. Due to a lot of racing recently there was only time for a good but short training block this time around. “I have been burning a bit too much of the candle racing a lot lately but glad I went in to Vegas underdone instead of possibly ‘overdone’ like last year.”

Griffin has a lot more racing coming up with an exhibition GP Triathlon in Las Vegas next week, then he is off to Rev3 Branson & Augusta 70.3. “I am loving racing at the moment and things are going well.”

Craig Alexander finished 19th overall but showed that there is some speed in the legs with the 5th fasest run split of the day at 1:15:05. Crowie received a drafting penalty which explains his slower bike time.   On twitter Crowie commented ‘Frustrating day personally. Pinged for drafting 2km into the ride. Probably deserved it. No intent but looking down not paying attention.”

Speaking of penalties Christian Kemp was also slapped with a penalty which took the sting out of his race.

The recent ITU converts did not factor in to the top results as the established long course triathletes showed their class when it mattered in the conditions thrown up at them.

Top pro male swim times

Top pro male bike times

Top pro male run times