IRONMAN 70.3 Dallas-Little Elm 2026 results: Sanders starts season in style and Hering swoops late after penalty drama

Lionel Sanders (CAN) made a winning start to 2026 as he claimed an emphatic win in the men’s race at the inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 Dallas–Little Elm, while Jackie Hering (USA) took the women’s title despite a two-minute penalty on the bike.

The race itself began in unusual fashion after organisers were forced to modify the format due to adverse weather and strong currents linked to an incoming cold front.

While the professional field still completed a shortened 350-metre time-trial swim, the age-group swim was cancelled entirely, with those athletes instead starting the race via a bike time-trial – though IRONMAN confirmed that the age-group 70.3 World Championship qualifying slots would still be awarded, based on the adjusted bike and run times.

Having missed a huge chunk of the 2025 campaign with injury issues – he only raced three 70.3s, winning two of them – Sanders had announced beforehand that he was finally fit and raring to go, saying “Excited to get back out there and crush one this weekend.”

And the 38-year-old Canadian was good to his word as he again began the season in customarily strong fashion, the massively-reduced swim having further boosted his chances. Here’s how the two races played out…

Pro Men – ‘No Limits’ puts marker down

The course guide before had suggested “a stunning swim in calm, open water” but the day dawned very, very different with strong and gusty currents in Lewisville Lake. So rather than 1.9km we just had 350 metres, meaning just 1:26 difference from first placed Marc Dubrick (USA) in 2:38 back to the last athlete in 61st.

Of the pre-race favourites Ben Kanute (USA) was 5s back, Rudy Von Berg (USA) was +20s and Sanders was +40s in 46th.

But onto the one-lap 56.1-mile bike course and it didn’t take Sanders long to make rapid progress – he was inside the top 10 within 10 miles and then up to second, just 11s behind Leonard Arnold (GER) at the second checkpoint at 23 miles.

Sanders then moved ahead as he and Arnold set about putting distance between themselves and the rest – and that pattern continued, meaning that starting the run ‘No Limits’ had an advantage of 19 seconds on Arnold and nearly three minutes on Ari Klau (USA), Josh Lewis (GBR) and Kanute in third, fourth and fifth respectively.

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And with four wins and a second place in his last five 70.3s, Sanders was always going to be difficult to peg back from that situation.

A 1:11:53 half marathon – run on what was mostly trail – saw him claim a comfortable victory, 2:27 in front of Kanute, with Andrea Salvisberg (SUI) rounding out the podium in third, just six second behind.

But it had looked closer at one point when Klau had cut the gap down to less than a minute only for bad blisters on both feet to knock him out of contention.

Pro Women – Hering times it perfectly

It was exactly the same format for the women, who started five minutes later and when the swim positions were shaken out it was Vittoria Lopes (BRZ), Rachel Olson (USA) and Erica Hawley (BER) who were the top three, with just 15 seconds covering them.

Hering was sixth at +23s, with 1:17 back to the 24th and last-placed athlete.

Lopes extended her advantage early on the bike – it was up to 38 seconds on Emma Skaug (CAN) by the 10-mile point, with the rest of the field over a minute back.

But midway through it was all change – Annamarie Strehlow (USA) was now at the head of the race, just in front of Hering but with that pair both handed two-minute penalties, Anna Buettner (GER) suddenly came into the equation.

And on the first of three 7km loops on the gravel run it was Buettner who started to move clear and she was 30 seconds in front of Hering by halfway, with Strehlow at +1:24. The gap between the first two stayed fairly constant but Strehlow was dropping back and facing a battle to hang on to third.

Up front though there was a dramatic finish to come as Hering closed inexorably on Buettner. The gap was 22s with 3km to go and 11s with 1.5km remaining so it could hardly have been tighter but Hering powered into the lead not long after and crossed the line in 3:49:57, 18s ahead of Buettner, with Shrehlow just holding onto third at +3:03.