IRONMAN 70.3 St. George women’s results: Paula Findlay wins North American title

Canadian Paula Findlay continued her fine early season form with a comfortable victory at the IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship in St. George, Utah on Saturday.

The 34-year-old, who in her first two races of the season finished fourth at the Miami T100 and third at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside, biked away from the field and never looked back, winning by more than two minutes.

Contracted to the T100 Triathlon World Tour this season, the Olympian has now also accumulated a considerable amount of IRONMAN Pro Series points with two podium performances in the last month.

Swim – Curran leads into transition

Out of the water, it was Kate Curran leading in 25:46, as the British athlete came into transition just ahead of defending champion Jeanni Metzler, with Findlay and Australian Ellie Salthouse ten seconds down on the leading pair.

Over 90 seconds down, the chase pack, which included Americans Jackie Hering and Gabrielle Lumkes, plus Canadian Rach McBride, had their work cut out to catch the lead group out on the bike.

Danielle Lewis, who finished in the Top 10 a week ago at IRONMAN Texas and was one of the pre-race contenders, was back in 19th out of the water, +3:38 down, but with strong athletes such as Gurutze Frades Larralde for company.

Bike – Findlay makes her move

As we have so often seen her do in these North American races, Findlay started to push the pace on the bike and soon found herself with a gap, with the Edmonton native up half a minute by the time she passed the 19.4km mark.

Salthouse, who had tried unsuccessfully to go with Findlay, had in the process dropped Metzler and Curran, who were a further +0:30 and +1:30 back from the Australian through the second timing mat at 19.4km.

By the halfway mark, Findlay’s lead over Salthouse was closer to a minute, and over the back half of the bike it ballooned out, with the PTO World #7 eventually entering transition up by four minutes.

Behind Findlay, Salthouse was still in the mix for the podium, but had seen Hering and Lewis reduce their deficits and move up into third and fourth, just a minute down on Salthouse in second place.

Alongside the two Americans, Curran and Metzler had entered transition within striking distance of the minor medal positions, and it looked to be a five-way battle between Salthouse, Metzler, Curran, Lewis and Hering for second and third.

Run – Findlay cruises home to victory

Never really challenged once she got off the bike, Findlay did see Salthouse and co eat into her lead, but only over the back half, by which point the Canadian was home and dry, as she picked up her first victory of the season off the back of a 1:23:25 run split.

[Photo credit: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images for IRONMAN]

In second, Salthouse was +2:28 back on Findlay in the end, and did a good job in staying clear of the chasers, who led by Hering looked set to threaten her spot on the podium at one point, but eventually ran out of gas or real estate.

Thanks to a brilliant bike-run, Hering was able to finish on her first podium of the season, as the PTO World #49 was greeted by her family at the finish line ahead of Metzler in fourth and Curran in fifth.

Back in sixth, Lewis, who had looked strong over the early stages of the run, saw her IRONMAN exploits from last weekend catch up with her, but still completed a solid double with two Top 10 performances.