Marbella, 22 May 2022.- The tourist capital of the Costa del Sol has once again been the majestic setting for the fourth edition of IRONMAN Marbella 70.3. The triathletes enjoyed the competition, organised by The IRONMAN Group, which managed to move everyone due to its spectacular route with the Mediterranean Sea in the background, the beautiful inland towns of the province of Malaga and Puerto Banús in Marbella as the epicentre of this great triathlon event. All the participants enjoyed the sunny day, with an average water temperature of 19 degrees Celsius.
Hundreds of popular triathletes did not want to miss this new edition of the IRONMAN 70.3 Marbella, including the pro athletes who started the swimming event at 7.40 am. Among them was the considered great favourite, the American Chris Leiferman, as well as high-level triathletes such as the South African Bradley Weiss, the Chilean Martín Ulloa, the Belgian Christophe de Keyser and others. In the women’s category, the Briton Nikki Bartlett (who finished 13th in the last IRONMAN World Championship in Saint George) and her compatriot Tara Grosvenor, along with the German Svenja Those, were some of the prominent names at the start.
Nikki Bartlett fulfils predictions
Bartlett was the fastest to complete the 1,900-metre swimming event, the 90-kilometre cycling event and the 21-kilometre running event with a final time of 4 hours and 32 minutes. As such, the Scottish triathlete met expectations and won the final victory in her first participation in the IRONMAN 70.3 Marbella. Her triumph was a great source of energy for her, after her last victory in 2019 and after participating just two weeks ago in the IRONMAN World Championship in Utah, where she did not feel quite well. Svenja Thoes won the silver medal, crossing the finish line just over four minutes after the winner, while the Italian athlete Federica de Nicola finished third.
The first part of the competition, the swimming event, was led by the German Katharina Krüger, who was the first to come out of the water, followed by the Dane Line Thams less than one minute later. Bartlett finished eighth in this event with a compact group of triathletes, including De Nicola, Debbie Greig and Tara Grosvenor. The final winner had been closing in and at km 72 of the cycling event she pulled ahead into the lead, which she defended until the final finish in Puerto Banús.
De Keyser overtakes the heavy favourite
The Belgian triathlete Christophe de Keyser has won the final victory with a time under four hours (03:58:57). Chris Leiferman finished 30 seconds later, setting the fastest time in the final half marathon, but it was not enough for him to overtake De Keyser. Bradley Weiss came in third place. The fourth and fifth places in the men’s category went to Martin Ulloa and Domenico Passuello.
The winner of this new edition of IRONMAN 70.3 Marbella was at the head of the race from the beginning, placing second in swimming just one second behind the Swede Alexander Berggren, who was the first to step on the beach when leaving the sea. De Keyser maintained the lead until the end, keeping a tempo with the favourite Leiferman, who had been moving up and pulled into second place at 35 km in the cycling event, with the South African Weiss a short distance away. In the end, everyone battled it out in a beautiful sports contest that brought joy to triathlon lovers.
Marbella, a sports benchmark for triathletes
Once again, it has been proven how the city of Marbella is a sports benchmark with major events like IRONMAN 70.3 that are magnet for international triathletes. Thirty-one per cent of the participants in this edition were Spanish citizens, while the majority were triathletes who came from abroad, especially from the United Kingdom, to enjoy the sport and the tourist services on the Costa del Sol.
These good results are due to the fact that it is the event that opens the season on the Iberian peninsula and the only one held in southern Spain. To these factors we must add the route itself and the unmistakable character of the south, with its culture, food and drink. All this generates a high level of interest in this event, in which there were many who did not want to fail and have once again enjoyed Marbella by practicing their favourite sport, the triathlon.
Results IRONMAN® 70.3® Marbella
Male Top 5 (Provisional Results)
Swim Bike Run Overall
Christophe De Keyser (BEL) 00:24:08 02:18:16 01:12:50 03:58:57
Chris Leiferman (USA) 00:25:00 02:18:54 01:11:48 03:59:27
Bradley Weiss (RSA) 00:24:55 02:19:16 01:12:16 04:00:39
Martín Ulloa (CHI) 00:25:06 02:19:27 01:16:00 04:04:39
Domenico Passuello (ITA) 00:28:45 02:19:27 01:15:24 04:08:03
Female Top 5 (Provisional Results)
Swim Bike Run Overall
Nikki Bartlett (UK) 00:29:35 02:34:39 01:24:03 04:32:42
Svenja Thoes (GER) 00:29:36 02:38:58 01:24:09 04:37:06
Federica de Nicola (ITA) 00:29:35 02:36:27 01:29:12 04:40:26
Olivia Mitchell (UK) 00:27:49 02:49:03 01:27:57 04:48:51
Debbie Greig (UK) 00:29:34 02:47:36 01:27:58 04:50:22
- You can find more photos in this link
- For further information on IRONMAN 70.3 Marbella, visit https://www.ironman.com/im703-marbella. For media-related inquiries, write to the email address prensa@ironman.com.
About The IRONMAN Group
The IRONMAN Group operates a global portfolio of events that includes the IRONMAN® Triathlon Series, the IRONMAN® 70.3® Triathlon Series, the IRONMAN® Virtual Racing™ (VR™) Series, 5150™ Triathlon Series, the Rock ‘n’ Roll® Running Series, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Virtual Running™ Series, IRONKIDS®, World Triathlon Championship Series, premier running events including the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon™ and The Sun-Herald City2Surf®, UTMB® World Series events including Tarawera Ultra and Ultra-Trail Australia™, Epic Series™ mountain bike races including the Absa Cape Epic®, road cycling events including Haute Route®, and other multisport races. The IRONMAN Group is the largest operator of mass participation sports in the world and provides more than a million participants annually the benefits of endurance sports through the company’s vast offerings. Since the inception of the iconic IRONMAN® brand and its first event in 1978, athletes have proven that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE® by crossing finish lines around the world. Beginning as a single race, The IRONMAN Group has grown to become a global sensation with hundreds of events across 55+ countries. The IRONMAN Group is owned by Advance, a private, family-owned business. For more information, visit www.ironman.com/about-ironman-group.
About Advance
Advance is a private, family-held business that owns and invests in companies across media, entertainment, technology, communications, education and other promising growth sectors. Our mission is to build the value of our companies over the long-term by fostering growth and innovation. Advance’s portfolio includes Condé Nast, Advance Local, Stage Entertainment, The IRONMAN Group, American City Business Journals, Leaders Group, Turnitin, 1010data and Pop. Together these operating companies employ more than 17,000 people in 29 countries. Advance is also among the largest shareholders in Charter Communications, Discovery and Reddit. For more information visit www.advance.com.
CARLOS MARTIN
Spain Marketing Manager South EMEA
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IRONMAN®
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