Argentina’s Oscar Galindez and Canada’s Heather Wurtele win Ironman 70.3 Panama

41 year old Oscar Galindez from Argentina has beaten a strong field to win Ironman 70.3 Panama. Galindez, a 25 year veteran of the sport, used his powerful bike leg to put himself in to a position to win the triathlon and held off a faster finishing Bevan Docherty from New Zealand.

After missing last year’s 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas after being hit by a passing truck while out training this is a sweet victory for Galindez. South America’s most successful triathlete, Galindez, along with Docherty, show that the older you get the faster you can become. This performance from Galindez is one of his best and shows that he still has some of his best racing ahead.

Born in Argentina, Galindez decided to move to move to Brazil where the racing and training were more favourable. He has had a stella career since starting triathlons at 16. He announced himself in 1992 when he won his first of many titles.

Australia’s Richie Cunningham repeated last years result with 3rd overall. The 2012 Rev3 champion had the second quickest bike time of the year to catch a group that were over a minute faster out of the water then out ran them all to take the last spot on the podium. Bevan Docherty put around three minutes in to that group once he hit the run. Cunningham almost had to do the race in his biggest gear after a broken Di2 cable almost derailed him. The race’s bike support managed to get it fixed in time for him to get a good night’s sleep.

Paul Ambrose had a day he would rather forget. According to his tweets after the race his seat dropped on the bike, he pulled a calf (presumably on the run) and forgot to take his speed suit off before hoping on the bike. After a brilliant performance at the Auckland 70.3 recently Ambrose would have been eying a podium in this race. Ambrose entered T2 at Panama second equal with Docherty to once again show that he is one of the best around.

Australia’s Brett Carter had a great swim but found himself off the pace on the bike to finish 14th overall. A great experience and he’ll take plenty away from it. Working full time over the last couple of months has not been a help.

One competitor that many were watching closely was Manuel Huerta. The former USA Olympic team member is another of the many ITU triathletes to step up to long course. Huerta said on twitter after the race that there is still a bit of work to do to get used to the 90kms in TT position. He had some lower back cramping and soreness.

In the women’s race Canada’s Heather Wurtele trailed three of her main competitors out of the swim with recent Ironman 70.3 South Africa champion Jodie Swallow over two minutes ahead out of T1. Wurtele put in a dominating bike performance to set the win up for herself. Wurtele was 6th last year at the 70.3 world champs and won the Timberman 70.3 amongst many top results. 2013 looks like it will be a great year for Heather if this first up result is anything to go by.

Swallow finished 5th overall after losing her gel bottle on the bike and eventually running out of fuel.

The fastest run of the day by around four minutes went to Kelly Williamson. Williamson was quite a bit off on the bike with a twelve minute + deficit to Wurtele. We aren’t sure what happened but it looks like she might have had a very angry run.

Last year’s ITU long course silver medalist Camilla Pedersen had a great race to take out second today. Pedersen