Lionel Sanders wins Ironman 70.3 Buenos Aires with race-best run

Lionel Sanders claimed his second win of 2017 with a smashing time of 3:42:47 at Ironman 70.3 Buenos Aires. In the non-wet suit swim, Sanders proved he’s made improvements in the water, coming out with a smaller-than-usual 3:16 deficit followed by race-best splits of 1:59:27 and 1:13:10 on the bike and run.

The run leg is 21.1K.

#IM703BuenosAires Men's podium

1 @LSandersTri 3:42:47
2 Rodolphe Von Berg 3:46:15
3 @igoramorelli 3:46:52

Photo: @trisportmag pic.twitter.com/Ryjs7nitz0

— IRONMANLive (@IRONMANLive) March 12, 2017

Sanders came out of the water behind a strung-out lead group of men that included American Rodolphe Von Berg and Brazilians Marcus Fernandes, Igor Amorelli, Reinaldo Colucci and then further back, Leon Griffin (AUS), Ben Hoffman (USA), Eneko Llanos (ESP), Guilherme Manocchio (BRA) and Santiago Ascenco (ARG). Halfway through the bike leg, he had taken the lead and by 60 km in, had a comfortable gap of nearly two minutes on Von Berg, who was sitting in second. Sanders and Amorelli entered T2 together with just over three minutes on Amorelli but Sanders continued to grow his lead on the run and finished with a 3:28 margin of victory.

Solid field today at #im703buenosaires! Congrats to these guys next to me and everyone else who raced! @igoramorelli @rudyvonberg #haveafastday #fuelledbyfreshii #liveyourdream @freshii @skechersperformancecanada @garneau @oakleyendurance

A post shared by Lionel Sanders (@lsanderstri) on Mar 12, 2017 at 7:09am PDT

The Windsor-native has spoken about his love for racing in South America — particularly the large local crowds of spectators that create an exciting race atmosphere for all the athletes. Sanders did some press for local news outlets before the race, including an appearance on ESPN Argentina.

This story originally appeared on triathlonmagazine.ca.