Belgian Christophe De Keyser won the Aix-en-Provence Ironman, held in the south of France on Sunday.
The Overijse native completed the 1,900 m swim, 90 km cycling and half-marathon run (21.1 km) in 3h58.56.
De Keyser, 29, came out of the water in second position behind Sweden’s Alexander Berggren. Faster than the Swede in the first transition, De Keyser took control of the race in the first kilometres of the cycling, and then never let go of the pole position, Belga News Agency reports.
As the athletes turned to the half marathon run, De Keyser could never relax however, coming under pressure from American Chris Leiferman.
Leiferman came within 46 seconds from De Keyser with 4 km to go from the end, but the former Belgian sprint triathlon champion managed to hold on to his winning position, maintaining a 30-second lead over the American (3:59:26) as he passed the line.
South African Bradley Weiss completed the podium, 1 minute and 42 seconds later (4:00:38).
The other Belgian triathlete in the race, Louis Naeyaert finished 9th, in 4h15:06.
Coming in second place in the Aix-en-Provence Ironman in September 2021, De Keyser is the first Belgian to win since the creation of the event in 2011.
