Japanese triathlete Yusuke Watanabe on Sunday claimed the overall men’s title at the Ironman Taiwan triathlon in Penghu County, finishing the grueling race in 9 hours, 39 seconds, ahead of Chilean athlete Philip Billikopf.
Despite challenging weather, nearly 1,000 athletes competed in the Ironman Taiwan after a 25-minute delay at the 6:25am start due to worsening winds and high sea swells.
The triathlon, which had a cut-off time of 17 hours, featured several course adjustments.
Photo: CNA
Although the swim leg was shortened from 3.8km to 1.9km due to rough seas, the cycling portion remained at 180km and the marathon ran as scheduled at 42.2km.
Although Watanabe finished third with a time of 29:14 in the men’s 40-44 age division, he was first in the division for the bike portion (5:30:03) and the run (2:53:07).
Billikopf, competing in the men’s 35-39 division, bested Watanabe’s bike time (5:12:31), but trailed in swimming and running to finish with a time of 9:03:30.
Japan’s Kenji Takeya finished third with a total time of 9:07:11.
Lee Wei, Taiwan’s top male finisher, grabbed sixth place with an overall time of 9:21:15.
Taiwan’s Chen Li-yun topped the women’s standings, and finished 12th overall, clocking a race time of 9:47:26, followed by Switzerland’s Chinouk Tschan, who finished 13th overall, with 10:00:34.
Other Taiwanese in the overall top 20 were Lu Cheng-hsun (10:02:28), Hsieh Kun-ta (10:03:20) and Chung Wei-kang (10:10:45).
Event organizer Lava Sports (Taiwan Triathlon Co) said that 65 athletes would be selected to represent Ironman Taiwan at the Ironman Nice in France, while 35 would earn spots to compete at the prestigious Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
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