Matt Trautman made a dream return to the Ironman 70.3 Buffalo City, while Jeanni Seymour became the first South African woman to win the East London event in an exciting race to make it an SA double triumph at the Orient beachfront yesterday morning.
Trautman enjoyed a great race to claim a third title after winning in 2015 and 2016 before he broke his back training for last year’s event which put him out for most of the year, making this year’s win all the more sweet.
“It was an emotional race for me, it’s been a long road back since the accident. This was pretty much the one-year anniversary of it. I was training for this race when I got hit by a car last year, so this has been a focus of mine and definitely kept me going throughout the whole rehab process,” said Trautman.
“It was great to win for the third time, the time was irrelevant – it was just about beating the competition that turned up on the day and I managed to grind it out.”
In the race, it was German athlete Johann Ackermann who started off at pace, coming out of the water first ahead of SA’s Rudolph Naude, Justin Metzler of the US, the Netherlands’ Evert Scheltinga, Kevin Rundstadler from Belguim and Trautman – all separated by just 43 seconds.
On the bike, Ackermann managed to stretch his lead to more than a minute by the 45km turnaround, while Trautman had made a move up into second place, followed by Rundstandler, with Belgium’s Kenneth Vandenriessche and SA’s Brad Weiss also moving into contention in fourth and fifth.
Disaster then struck for Ackermann as a mechanical problem on the bike forced him to stop, which put Trautman into the lead.
Coming off the bike, Trautman was one minute and 36 seconds ahead of the chasing pack, with some good battles behind him seeing Vandenriessche jumping up into second ahead of Scheltinga and Ackermann dropping to fourth and Weiss maintaining the fifth position.
During the first half of the run, Vandenriessche pushed the pace and managed to cut Trautman’s lead by 28 seconds, but going onto the second loop, the top three were still the same with Weiss having moved into fourth and Metzler fifth as Ackermann slipped to sixth.
Trautman then managed to find another gear and powered home in a time of 4:09:18, one minute and 54 seconds ahead of Vandenriessche, with the top five all holding their places over the second lap.
“Johann was really going strong, I think he had about a minute on me at the 45km turnaround and then at about 60km, he was on the side of the road, I think he might have got a puncture which was really unfortunate for him,” Trautman admitted.
“The race was never in the bag until I had crossed the finish line, so I just kept pushing.”
l In the women’s race, a superb performance from Seymour claimed a wire-to-wire victory after dominating from the start.
She burst out of the water one minute and 33 seconds ahead of Spain’s Judith Vaquera, with the UK’s Emma Pallant a further minute and 19 seconds back.
By the end of the bike ride, it had become a two-horse race with Seymour holding a good lead of two minutes and 46 seconds over Pallant, while Vaquera had dropped more than four minutes back.
Seymour then put in a great run to ensure a victory in a time of 4:32:22, while Pallant tried hard to cut the deficit but could only claw back 49 seconds to finish one minute and 57 seconds behind.
Vaquera took third a further 12 minutes back to round out the podium.
“I am pretty happy, I didn’t expect much going into this race, so I really surprised myself, and to come back home and win here is pretty special,” said Seymour.
“This is where it all started, my first 70.3 was here as an age grouper and then I turned pro, so it’s pretty cool to come back and win here which is a really great feeling.
“Going into the race I knew that Emma is an extremely great runner, so I needed all the time I could get.
“I really thought Emma was going to catch me, so I can’t even believe it.”
In all, more than 2400 athletes set off in the race from the Orient Beach, with the pros getting under way at 7am. East London’s Clinton Gravett was the first local home in 11th place overall with a time of 4:41:26.
Trautman shows steel
Trautman enjoyed a great race to claim a third title after winning in 2015 and 2016 before he broke his back training for last year’s event which put him out for most of the year, making this year’s win all the more sweet.
“It was an emotional race for me, it’s been a long road back since the accident. This was pretty much the one-year anniversary of it. I was training for this race when I got hit by a car last year, so this has been a focus of mine and definitely kept me going throughout the whole rehab process,” said Trautman.
“It was great to win for the third time, the time was irrelevant – it was just about beating the competition that turned up on the day and I managed to grind it out.”
In the race, it was German athlete Johann Ackermann who started off at pace, coming out of the water first ahead of SA’s Rudolph Naude, Justin Metzler of the US, the Netherlands’ Evert Scheltinga, Kevin Rundstadler from Belguim and Trautman – all separated by just 43 seconds.
On the bike, Ackermann managed to stretch his lead to more than a minute by the 45km turnaround, while Trautman had made a move up into second place, followed by Rundstandler, with Belgium’s Kenneth Vandenriessche and SA’s Brad Weiss also moving into contention in fourth and fifth.
Disaster then struck for Ackermann as a mechanical problem on the bike forced him to stop, which put Trautman into the lead.
Coming off the bike, Trautman was one minute and 36 seconds ahead of the chasing pack, with some good battles behind him seeing Vandenriessche jumping up into second ahead of Scheltinga and Ackermann dropping to fourth and Weiss maintaining the fifth position.
During the first half of the run, Vandenriessche pushed the pace and managed to cut Trautman’s lead by 28 seconds, but going onto the second loop, the top three were still the same with Weiss having moved into fourth and Metzler fifth as Ackermann slipped to sixth.
Trautman then managed to find another gear and powered home in a time of 4:09:18, one minute and 54 seconds ahead of Vandenriessche, with the top five all holding their places over the second lap.
“Johann was really going strong, I think he had about a minute on me at the 45km turnaround and then at about 60km, he was on the side of the road, I think he might have got a puncture which was really unfortunate for him,” Trautman admitted.
“The race was never in the bag until I had crossed the finish line, so I just kept pushing.”
l In the women’s race, a superb performance from Seymour claimed a wire-to-wire victory after dominating from the start.
She burst out of the water one minute and 33 seconds ahead of Spain’s Judith Vaquera, with the UK’s Emma Pallant a further minute and 19 seconds back.
By the end of the bike ride, it had become a two-horse race with Seymour holding a good lead of two minutes and 46 seconds over Pallant, while Vaquera had dropped more than four minutes back.
Seymour then put in a great run to ensure a victory in a time of 4:32:22, while Pallant tried hard to cut the deficit but could only claw back 49 seconds to finish one minute and 57 seconds behind.
Vaquera took third a further 12 minutes back to round out the podium.
“I am pretty happy, I didn’t expect much going into this race, so I really surprised myself, and to come back home and win here is pretty special,” said Seymour.
“This is where it all started, my first 70.3 was here as an age grouper and then I turned pro, so it’s pretty cool to come back and win here which is a really great feeling.
“Going into the race I knew that Emma is an extremely great runner, so I needed all the time I could get.
“I really thought Emma was going to catch me, so I can’t even believe it.”
In all, more than 2400 athletes set off in the race from the Orient Beach, with the pros getting under way at 7am. East London’s Clinton Gravett was the first local home in 11th place overall with a time of 4:41:26.
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