American Sam Long and Ashleigh Gentle from Australia are the inaugural winners at Clash Miami. Long triumphed after swimming 1.7 km, cycling 64.7 km and running 16.9 km in 2:39:55 hours, 2:02 minutes ahead of his compatriots Jason West and Ben Kanute. The best German was Jonas Schomburg in eighth place. Handicapped by a puncture, Andi Dreitz ended up in 11th place. In the women’s heat hell at Homestead Speedway, with temperatures above 30 degrees, Gentle kept a cool head and won in front of Brazilian Pamella Oliveria and Maja Stage Nielsen from Denmark.
The swim start was dominated as a duo by Jonas Schomburg and the Australian Aron Royle. The Hanoverian came out of the water after 20:08 min, followed by Royle (+0:03 min). The first pursuers were led by the American Ben Kanute (+0:29 min), followed by Jens Roth from Trier (+0:48 min) and the British Thomas Davis (+1:01 min). Andi Dreitz finished the swim, 1:15 minutes behind, in eleventh place before a puncture hit him right after the transition zone and threw him back a long way.
Schonburg keeps up for a long time – Long with the fastest bike split
On the bike, Kanute was then able to catch up with the top duo over the first 10 kilometers. As the game progressed, the American slowly crept away. At half-time in the cycling, Kanute was leading by a good half minute over Schomburg and Royle. Behind them, the Dane Magnus Ditlef (+1:06 min) and the American Sam Long (+1:09 min) had meanwhile moved into a promising position. First, the two high-speed cyclists Royle and Schomburg caught up, before after a good 50 kilometers even Kanute had to give up his lead. Long flew by and drove towards the second transition area as the leader. Kanute defended second place, 23 seconds behind, ahead of Ditlef (+0:54 min) and Jonas Schomburg (+2:57 min), who lost a lot of time on the final kilometers of cycling. Behind him, Dreitz had fought his way back into the top ten.
After a third of the run, Long was 44 seconds ahead of Ditlef, who was now able to pass Kanute. A little later the Dane had also reached his border. Kanute passed again and his compatriot Jason West also left Ditlef running with his head hanging. Sam Long, on the other hand, showed no signs of weakness. The 26-year-old from Boulder, who finally made it into the world elite when he came second in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship last year, won in a superior manner in 2:39:55 hours. Behind them, the cards were reshuffled again on the final five kilometers. Jason West overran Ben Kanute, who finished third safely ahead of young Dutchman Jouri Keulen, making for an all-US podium.
Perez Sala dominates initially – DNF after wheel fall
Initially, the women’s race was a duplicate of the previous year when the event was held under the Challenge label. The Spaniard Sara Perez Sala came out of the water again as the leader after 22:19 min and had left her first pursuers around the later winner Ashleigh Gentle and the Brazilian Pamella Oliveira by a good minute.
On the bike course, which featured 17 laps of Homestead Speedway, the Spaniard maintained her lead in front of her pursuers, led by Gentle, Oliveira, Chelsea Sodaro (USA) and Samantha Kingsford (NZL), who finished 25 kilometers within 30 seconds lay. A little later Perez Sala was out of the race. A carelessness was her undoing when she left the ideal line in the aero position and collided with an erected pylon and fell. She suffered extensive skin abrasions. A little later, however, the medical center gave the all-clear. The 34-year-old suffered no other injuries in the fall.
Gentle from the front – heat drama about Pallant-Browne and Sodaro
From now on, the course of the race was dominated by Gentle. The Australian extended her lead over Sadaro and Oliveira to a good one and a half minutes by the bike finish line. In the brutal midday heat of Miami, however, the run turned into an elimination race. First it was the British Emma Pallant-Browne, actually known for catching up in her running shoes, who suddenly fell completely exhausted and dehydrated in the second of the seven running laps and had to be treated by the rescue service. A similar fate befell Chelsea Sodaro. Only Ashleigh Gentle didn’t really seem to be upset by the heat, which in 2:59:51 hours also undercut the winning time of Jodie Stimpson from the previous year by 1:13 minutes.
Second place went to Pamela Oliveira, who initially missed the finish line, but then noticed her mishap and finally reached the finish channel with a climb over a barrier. Due to the detour, the third-placed Danish Maja Stage Nielsen (3:08:08) came within 18 seconds.