Beals wins Taiwan, Wurtele repeats at Campeche

Two wins for Canadians over the weekend — Cody Beals opened his season with the win at Ironman 70.3 Taiwan and Heather Wurtele won her second Ironman 70.3 Campeche (repeating the win from last year) as well as set a course record.

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A dream of a day at #IM703Taiwan! If only racing always felt so awesome! After one of my better swims, I quickly seized the lead and never looked back. I really savoured the win after a challenging year. Congrats @filipeazevedo93 @timberkel @andy_potts rounding out the top 4. Special thank you to my sponsor @bliiq_us for getting me here, @coachtilburs, my swim squad @guelphtriathlonproject, and my travel buddy @lesleyesmith. Thanks for all the support! Video recap coming soon!

A post shared by Cody Beals (@cody.beals) on Mar 18, 2018 at 9:07am PDT

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Well that was a great day! Very happy to make it two for two at @ironmantri #703Campeche & to have set a new course record in hot, windy conditions. Congrats to @laurenbbrandon & @angelanaeth for strong races. Viva Mexico! ?? . Huge thanks to @enriquelifra @trimexico for the photo!

A post shared by Trevor and Heather Wurtele (@teamwurtele) on Mar 18, 2018 at 12:15pm PDT

In Taiwan, Beals had a great swim and then clocked a race-best 2:01 bike split, finishing off the day with a 1:13 half marathon. After taking the lead early into the back, he held on for the duration of the race. His finishing time of 3:46 was six minutes faster than the runner-up.

Wurtele overtook American Lauren Brandon on the bike and clocked a race-best 2:22 bike split before holding on with an impressive 1:24 half marathon on the hot and windy course to set a new course record of 4:17 on her way to the win.

Canadian Angela Naeth joined Wurtele on the podium in third, behind TMC contributor and runner-up Lauren Brandon:

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Yay for 2nd place at my first race of 2018 down here @ironmantri 70.3 Campeche! So happy to be on the podium with these two lovely ladies @teamwurtele and @angelanaeth! I felt great all day and my race definitely makes me excited for Ironman Texas in 6 weeks! Thanks to my 2 friends @kevincollington and @pablitogomezb for being amazing travel buddies and making this trip easy and fun! I’ll talk about the race later, but I’m definitely happy! ? @ironmantri

A post shared by Lauren Brandon (@laurenbbrandon) on Mar 18, 2018 at 2:23pm PDT

The men’s race in Campeche saw New Zealander Terenzo Bozzone take his third win in as many weekends — he won Ironman New Zealand, then Ironman 70.3 Bariloche last weekend and Campeche yesterday.

The Canadian men had a less successful day in Campeche. Jackson Laundry took the best Canadian result of the day in 7th, after sitting in 2nd for most of the race. Trevor Wurtele came in behind him in 8th and Taylor Reid landed a top 10 finish as well in 9th.

Loren Nelson took 15th.