SCHOEMAN, VISSER SHARE IRONMAN GLORY

South Africa’s Henri Schoeman just beat everyone out of the water on Sunday but put on a show on land to claim the centerpiece men’s pro division title of the Ironman 70.3 Lapu-Lapu in Mactan, where Els Visser of The Netherlands emerged victorious in the women’s side.

The bronze medal winner in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Schoeman broke away from Brit Thomas Bishop and Kiwi Sam Osborne in the bike leg before leaving the field eating his dust in the run to clock four hours, two minutes and 31 seconds for the 1.9-kilometer swim, 90km bike and 21-km run event under strength-sapping heat.

Osborne settled for second after outkicking Bishop in the waning kilometers of the run leg, checking in close to nine minutes behind even as Visser also ruled her division in wire-to-wire style over Germany’s Anne Reischmann and Hungary’s Zsanett Brag

After clocking 24:15 in the swim, which was just over a minute better than Bishop’s time, Schoeman quickly established a big lead early in the bike race to end the chances of the chasing pack.

The event drew over 1,400 participants, with Schoeman and Visser, aside from pocketing US$5,500 each, leading a total of 60 athletes who won slots to the Ironman World Championship slated in New Zealand in December.

Among the winners in the men’s category were Franklin Yee (18-24 years old in 04:43:49, Macau’s Man Kit Chao (25-29, 04:32:29), Banjo Norte (30-34, 04:44:03), Gabb Rosario (35-39, 04:54:23), Japan’s Ryosuke Ohata (40-44, 04:31:02), Dutch Eric van der Linden (50-54, 04:35:07), and Neil Goulsbra (55-59, 04:57:35).