Danielle Lewis takes first Ironman win in Lake Placid, overcoming 16-minute deficit after the swim
American bounces back from fifth in Roth two weeks ago for huge win in Lake Placid

Just two weeks after finishing fifth at Challenge Roth, American Danielle Lewis stormed through a 2:52 marathon run to take her first Ironman title. The feat was even more impressive considering that Lewis trailed the swim leaders by a whopping 15:37 as she ran to T1.
It was American super-swimmer Lauren Brandon who exited Mirror Lake in first, with Rachel Zilinskas in tow. The Netherlands’ Lotte Wilms was third out of the water, a shade under two minutes back of the two leaders. By the end of the first of the two laps of the bike Zilinskas and Wilms were out in front, with the rest of the pre-race favourites well back – Americans Sarah True, Alice Alberts and Jackie Hering, who were all expected to compete for the podium, were over five minutes behind, with Lewis eight minutes down.
By the end of the bike it was Zilinskas out in front, with True alongside. Alberts was now almost six minutes behind, while Hering would hit T2 9:13 behind the leaders. Lewis was next in, 10:45 off the pace.
Jackie Hering flies to huge win at Ironman Hamburg as race favourite DQd on the bike
Once out on the run, though, it became clear that Lewis and Hering were the big movers. Though 11.5 km they were in third and fourth, about 5:40 from the lead. Halfway through the run Lewis had run to the front, passing then leader Sarah True, with Zilinskas a few seconds back and Hering remaining in the hunt, 30 seconds behind. With 10 km to go Lewis was a minute ahead, but Hering was keeping her honest as Alberts had suddenly appeared in the top three. The defending champ was almost five minutes back, though. (At this point True was fading and would eventually pull out.)
Lewis would fly through a 2:52:23 run split to take the win in 9:01:54. Hering would follow up her Hamburg win with a runner-up finish (9:06:26), while Alberts would round out the podium in 9:10:36. Zilinskas would hang tough for fourth (9:17:51), with Regan Hollioake taking fifth in 9:21:06.
We’ll have more coverage from Lake Placid tomorrow.