The in-form Lucy Charles-Barclay won the Ironman 70.3 European Championships in style, setting a new course record with a time of 03:59:57. With the race defending champion, Holly Lawrence (United Kingdom), crossing the finish line in second, and Camilla Pedersen (Denmark) rounding off the podium in third place.
Lucy Charles-Barclay said: “It feels nice to win something and not be second. I just went hard from the start. Obviously, the swim is my strength, so I knew I had to get as much of a gap there as possible. On the bike I was just riding hard and just trying to push hard the whole way and chase the men in front of me, and bike as if there was not even a run going to happen. On the run I was trying to build up each lap and I was feeling pretty strong in the end.”
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In the men's race George Goodwin produced a great performance, winning in a time of 03:38:58. Defending European Champion from 2018 and 2019 Rodolphe von Berg (United States) came in second and Jan Stratmann (Germany) rounded off the podium in third.
George Goodwin’s expressed his excitement of being an Ironman 70.3 European Championship winner, “It sounds good! [being called a champion] My swim was slow, the bike and run were definitely better. My goals was to pick everyone up on the run. I didn’t know if I was going to run that fast but I knew if I ran as well as I could I would move up.”
The top three men and women have qualified for 2021 Ironman 70.3 World Championship, St. George Utah in September.
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