(Image: Ironman)
Britain's Catriona Morrison was nearly in sight of victory at Ironman 70.3 Panama last weekend before being overhauled by Angela Naeth (CAN) in the final stages of the run, eventually taking a well-deserved silver.
Mary Beth Ellis (USA) led throughout the 1.9km ocean swim at the mouth of the Panama Canal, heading into T1 with a 10secs advantage over her nearest rival Rebeccah Wassner (USA), while Morrison was around 1min behind. Canada's Angela Naeth then took the lead on the bike and entered transition with a 2:31mins lead over her nearest rival Svenja Bazlen (GER).
Morrison entered T2 around three minutes behind the leader but quickly made ground and snatched the lead from Naeth around 8km into the run. The British athlete could not shake off Naeth however, who regained the lead at 19km and crossed the line in 4:04:58, followed by Morrison (4:06:16) and Bazlen (4:08:12).
Gold for Gomez
In the men's race meanwhile, 2013 ITU world champion Javier Gomez (ESP) delivered a convincing three-minute win over a strong field that included Olympian Bevan Docherty (NZL) and long-distance specialist Andrew Starykowicz (USA).
Getting off to a strong start, Gomez led out of the water by around a minute before losing the initiative to Starykowicz in the opening miles of the bike leg, who led into T2 with a lead of a little under 2mins.
Gomez regained ground once on the run though, overtaking Starykowicz at around the 5km mark and crossing the line in 3:38:28, followed by Matt Chrabot (USA) and Bertrand Billard (FRA) in second and third respectively.
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