Ironman Florida saw some big performances last weekend, with Victor Del Corral of Spain posting the best-ever time for an Ironman in North America and Yvonne Van Vlerken (NDL) beating the women's course record.
Pre-race favourite Andrew Starykowicz (USA) left the water 1:45mins behind the leaders, but hurtled around the bike leg to reach T2 in a new world record time for Ironman bike splits of 4:02:17.
Del Corral eventually closed Starykowicz down halfway through the run to finish in 7:53:12, followed by Starykowicz in 7:55:22 and Filip Ospaly (CZE) in 7:58:44, rounding out a full sub-8 hour men's podium.
In the women's race, Haley Chura (USA) left the water over four minutes ahead of her nearest rivals, before being overtaken by Lisa Huetthaler (AUT) 64km into the bike, then Van Vlerken soon afterwards.
Van Vlerken left T2 in the lead and built up a significant margin of nearly 10 minutes by the halfway point of the run, eventually finishing in 8:43:07, followed by Ashley Clifford (USA) in 8:48:03 and Erika Csomor (HUN) in 8:56:41.
(Image: j.s. clark via Flickr)