IRONMAN 70.3 St. George women's results: Findlay defends title after dramatic Lopes exit

Paula Findlay followed up her 70.3 Oceanside victory – just like men’s winner and fellow Canadian Lionel Sanders – with a superb success in the last-ever running of IRONMAN 70.3 St. George in Utah.

She’d had an enthralling battle with Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes on the bike but when Lopes stepped off the course early on the run it became one-way traffic.

Findlay was never really threatened as she defended her 70.3 St. George crown in style in a race which again doubled as the North American Championship, stopping the clock in 4:11:06, four minutes quicker than her winning time 12 months ago.

American Danielle Lewis took second, just over four minutes back, with compatriot Jackie Hering rounding out the podium in third.

Swim – Fast start from Lopes

Lopes was a close-up third in the swim at last summer’s Olympics and quickest in the water on her 70.3 debut at Cozumel not long after so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see her lead the way here.

She clocked 24:35 for the out-and-back course and then gave her a 22 seconds advantage over Lotte Wilms (NED).

Pre-race favourite Findlay was third at +1:22, with former IRONMAN World Champion Chelsea Sodaro (USA) right on her feet on what was her seasonal debut.

And in fifth was Jocelyn McCauley, just over two minutes off the lead.

Bike – Brilliant duel in the sun

Findlay and Sodaro made up nearly half a minute on Lopes through T1 but the Brazilian soon settled into a good rhythm on the bike and as Sodaro dropped back it was left to Findlay to try and close.

That proved far easier said than done though and the gap would hover around 30 seconds for the first half of the bike even though Findlay was pulling clear of the rest, with McCauley now in third at +1:47.

However Findlay, the three-time Canadian time trial champion, wasn’t to be denied and she finally made the catch just after halfway.

By now the duo had opened up a gap of over five minutes to the rest who were now led by Lewis.

Again though Lopes impressed as she stayed on Findlay’s tail, first the Snow Canyon climb and then on the subsequent descent.

And it stayed that way to T2 – Findlay just off the bike first but Lopes sprinted ahead of her straight out of transition.

McCauley was third at +2:04, with Lisa Becharas (USA), who also clocked a blistering bike split at Oceanside, up to fourth and Lewis in fifth.

Run – The moment the race changed

Lopes wasted little time in taking 20 seconds out of Findlay inside the first kilometre of the run but then the whole race dramatically changed complexion.

For as Findlay responded and reeled her in, Lopes than stepped off the course – for reasons which weren’t immediately clear. Afterwards Findlay revealed that Lopes had told her she was only running 3km as she had been injured.

And that was that as far as the victory was concerned as Findlay suddenly had an advantage of nearly four minutes from Lewis and never looked like being threatened.

The gap stayed constant and Findlay was 4:14 to the good when the line came. Hering ran a fractionally quicker half marathon (1:23:04) than both of them to move her way into an impressive third, just ahead of Britain’s Simone Mitchell.