Collington, Watkinson top Busan
Kevin Collington of the U.S. and Amelia Watkinson of New Zealand won a swim-shortened Ironman 70.3 Busan on Sunday in Korea.
Men
Due to strong currents off Haeundae Beach in the Japan Sea, race officials shortened the swim to 1000 meters. Kevin Collington trailed New Zealand swim leader Guy Crawford’s 16:47 split by 2 seconds, which gave the duo a 45 seconds lead on Fredrik Croneborg of Sweden, 51 seconds on Ben Cook of Australia, 1:45 on Rodrigo Acevedo of Colombia, and 3:19 on Younghwan Oh of Korea.
By 47km of the bike leg, Crawford and Collington rode together and opened up a 2:35 lead on Acevedo, 6:16 on Croneborg and 6:18 on Cook. By 78km, Crawford dropped 8 minutes back to 5th place due to a mechanical issue. Collington led Acevedo by 2:30 and Croneborg and Cook by 7:10. After a race-best 2:20:41 bike split, Collington led Acevedo (2:21:14 bike split) by 2:31, Croneborg (2:27:29 bike split) by 7:33, and Crawford by 9:39.
Collington ran a 3rd-best 1:24:30 split to finish in 4:06:28 with a 2:15 margin of victory over Acevedo, who ran a 2nd-best 1:24:27. Croneborg made up 3:20 with his race-best 1:21:10 10k split but fell 2:01 short of Acevedo in 3rd-place.
The win comes on the heels of Collington’s 8:04:58 3rd-place finish at Ironman Brazil.
Women
Watkinson led the 1k swim in 17:46, which gave her a 1:52 lead on Michelle Duffield of Australia, 2:14 on fellow Aussie Kym Coogan, 2:39 on Taiwan star Yu-Shiao Li, and 4:31 on defending Busan 70.3 winner Kate Bevilaqua of Australia.
Watkinson, coming off wins at Subic Bay and the Pattaya Triathlon in Thailand and podium finishes at several regional cycling races, crushed the women's field with a 2:25:27 bike split, which was 14 minutes better than Li and 15 minutes better than Duffield. Starting the run with a huge lead, Watkinson cruised home with a women's 2nd-best 1:33:43 run. This brought her to the finish in 4:21:39 with a 14:17 margin of victory over Duffield (women’s-best 1:30:55 run) and 18:56 over 3rd-place finisher Li Shiao-Yu (1:34:52 run).
Ironman 70.3 Busan
Busan, South Korea
June 19, 2016
S 1k / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Results
Men
1. Kevin Collington (USA) 4:06:27
2. Rodrigo Acevedo (COL) 4:08:42
3. Fredrik Croneborg (SWE) 4:10:43
4. Younghwan Oh (KOR) 4:22:53
5. Guy Crawford (NZL) 4:26:38
Women
1. Amelia Watkinson (NZL) 4:21:38
2. Michelle Duffield (AUS) 4:35:55
3. Li Shiao-Yu (TWN) 4:40:34
4. Kym Coogan (AUS) 4:49:00
5. Hwang Jiho (KOR) 5:21:19
