WAM Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Triathlon Team clinched podium finishes at twin Ironman 70.3 events in the USA last weekend, as Australia’s Paul Ambrose and Britain’s Jodie Swallow ran out gold and silver medal winners in Providence, Rhode Island and Muncie, Indiana, respectively.
For Ambrose, who won his home Ironman Australia event in May, a scintillating bike performance proved the difference. Ambrose, 27, has produced the fastest bike split in the majority of his races this year and, after emerging from Olney Pond in Lincoln Woods Park a few seconds behind the USA’s Kevin Collington, the Sydney native’s pedal power again took centre stage.
With the bike section incorporating the scenic Blackstone River Bikeway and secondary roadways en route to Providence, the state capital, Ambrose built a 10-minute lead over Ukraine’s Maxim Kriat by the second transition area, turning the two-loop run course through Providence and Brown University campus into a procession.
“After consecutive second place finishes in Kansas and Syracuse, it feels great to get the win. All my winter bike work is paying off and no-one could touch me on two wheels – it gives me a lot of confidence for the future,” said Ambrose, who will contest Ironman 70.3 Racine, in Wisconsin, this Sunday.
Meanwhile in Indiana, Swallow, 31, was looking to maintain her own blistering summer form that had already yielded a win in Boise, Isaho, and second-place finish in Syracuse, New York, last month. With severe heat forcing organisers to shorten the 70.3 Ironman Muncie event to the Olympic distance, Swallow did not let the last-minute course change interfere with her podium ambitions.