Don, Tisseyre Earn 70.3 South American Championships

Great Britain’s Tim Don and Canada’s Magali Tisseyre claimed the 2016 Ironman 70.3 South American Championships in Palmas, Brazil on Sunday. With the championship victories, each will take home $14,000 as part of the overall $75,000 prize purse offering.

Men’s Race
Don led a out of the 1.2-mile swim at 26:00, with seven others right on his heels. Germany’s Nils Frommhold and Australia’s Leon Griffin—who were both part of that lead pack out of the swim—joined Don out front and the trio built a gap over the rest of the field. The three of them came off of the bike within six seconds of each other and with a lead of three minutes over the next chasers. Don immediately pushed the pace on the run, forcing Frommhold to drop back. Griffin maintained contact for a few miles, but Don’s running skills eventually wore down Griffin and he also had to fall off the pace. Don put together a 1:18:49 half-marathon in the heat—by far the best of the day—to win his third-straight 70.3 South American Championship, crossing the line in 3:53:10. Griffin finished second at 3:56:49, with Canada’s Cody Beals running his way to third at 3:59:12.

Women’s Race
Like Don, Tisseyre started her day on the right note by leading out of the swim. The Canadian, who has made great progress as a swimmer, came out of the water at 28:52, with Brazil’s Gisele Bertucci (29:49), the United States’ Linsey Corbin (29:53) and Germany’s Anja Beranek (29:54) as the closest pursuers. Tisseyre shined on the bike, earning a lead of about two minutes over Baranek to start the run. Corbin was the third women into T2, but with a deficit of seven minutes to Tisseyre it looked to be a two-women race out front. At one point Barenek closed the gap to Tisseyre to 25 seconds, but she couldn’t hold that pace in the heat and fell back. Tisseyre capped off her day with a 1:33:47 run to take the victory in 4:21:17. Beranek finished second at 4:25:04, with Corbin rounding out the podium at 4:28:02.

2016 Ironman 70.3 South American Championships
Palmas, Brazil – April 10, 2016
1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run

Men
1. Tim Don (GBR) 3:53:10
2. Leon Griffin (AUS) 3:56:49
3. Cody Beals (CAN) 3:59:12
4. Christian Horper (GER) 4:02:21
5. Ivan Rana (ESP) 4:03:13

Women
1. Magali Tisseyre (CAN) 4:21:17
2. Anja Beranek (GER) 4:25:04
3. Linsey Corbin (USA) 4:28:02
4. Lisa Roberts (USA) 4:31:13
5. Kirsty Jahn (CAN) 4:34:56