Local favourite Lionel Sanders potentially saw his chances of victory at IRONMAN Canada today (Sunday August 25) boosted by the fact the swim was cancelled.
The swim is ‘No Limits’ relative weak point before he tends to slice through the field on the bike and run.
By far the highest ranked overall in the field in Canada at #13 in the PTO standings, Sanders is #196 for the swim but top 20 for both bike and run.
Why was the swim cancelled?
He should have faced a 3.8km swim in Lake Okanagan but as air and water temperatures dripped – the latter to just 13 degrees Celsius – the start time was put back from 06:15 local to 07:30.
It was also announced the swim would be chopped right down to 750 metres.
However there was insufficient improvement and organisers made the call to cancel the swim.
TT start on the bike
Instead we had a time trial start for the bike, with 30 seconds between each rider and athletes going off in an order decided by a blind draw.
First away in the men’s race was American Simon Shi, with Sanders slated to go 14th.
For the women, Sarah True – the only athlete in the top 100 of the rankings – set off first.
Sanders has had a superb season so far, winning his first two races at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside and IRONMAN 70.3 Mont Tremblant, followed by third place last time at IRONMAN Lake Placid.
And he made a solid start when IRONMAN Canada belatedly got under way, opening up a lead of 43 seconds on his rivals by the first checkpoint after 24km.
Victory on Sunday in Penticton would be a fitting high-profile story for the last edition of an event where the first North American IRONMAN triathlon was born, before it moves to Ottawa in 2025.
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