France’s Cyril Viennot and Switzerland’s Caroline Steffen took the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, of the VNG Ironman 70.3 Vietnam 2016 in Da Nang on May 8.

 Switzerland’s Caroline Steffen.

Viennot, who finished fourth last year, clocked a time of three hours 54 minutes and nine seconds to win the men’s title.

Tim Van Berkel, from Australia, came in second in 3hr 55min 8sec, ahead of his fellow countryman Luke Mc Kenzie, with a time in 3hr 59min 18sec.

“I’m very happy to race and win the VNG Ironman 70.3 Vietnam this year. It’s a challenge with hot weather today and I was thinking of running faster on 21km track,” Viennot said at a press conference after the race.

Swiss Steffen, who won VNG Ironman 70.3 Vietnam 2015, defended her title in this the second edition of the race in a time of 4hr 12min 18sec.

Czech Radka Vodickova finished second with a time in 4hr 15min 46sec, while Liz Blatchford ranked third after finishing in 4hr 19min 46sec.

Steffen said it was a tough race for her this year as defending champion.

“Winning the title is hard, but defending it is even harder. I’m very happy to win again in Vietnam. I had a good start with swimming and a good run after a bike race in very hot conditions,” Steffen said.

Caroline said she would donate more to Newborn Vietnam – a programme to reduce deaths of new born babies in the country – from an auction of her souvenirs this year.

On May 7, over 200 kids in the age groups of 6 to 10 and 11 to 14 also competed in the Iron Kid race with 1.5km and 2km fun run.

VNG Ironman 70.3 Vietnam 2016 drew over 1,100 athletes representing 60 countries, including more than 25 professional triathletes and 50 relay teams.

Athletes completed a 1.9km ocean swim, a 90km bike race and a 21km run along the coastline of Da Nang.

VNA