Max Stapley found gold in Poland with a wire-to-wire win at Ironman 70.3 Gdynia.
The British athlete emerged from the 1.9-kilometre Baltic Sea swim 33 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Shutting down a challenge early on the 90-kilometre cycle leg, he widened the gap to more than four minutes by the bike-to-run transition. His lead only grew over the half marathon as he stopped the clock in 3 hours, 38 minutes, 36 seconds – nearly five minutes ahead of his competitors.
Stapley’s early season this year focused on short-course racing in line with the Paris Olympic cycle, with a win at the World Triathlon Cup Chengdu and a slew of Top 10 finishes. He will return to the World Triathlon circuit for the final few races on the Championship Series before racing his next middle-distance event of the year in November at the Ironman 70.3 Bahrain Middle East Championship.
