MACTAN, Cebu — For Australia’s Josh Ferris and New Zealand’s Amelia Watkinson, winning the IRONMAN 70.3 Lapu-Lapu — through overcast skies, rain and sun — was a triumph in itself at Mactan Newtown on Sunday. But winning it to the deafening cheers of school children and locals, whose energy pushed them to the limit and carried them to the finish line, was something else.

“I was screaming along without knowing,” said Ferris, who captured the men’s professional crown in 03:49:10 over the 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21km run, besting New Zealand’s Mike Phillips.

The Kiwi entry submitted a time of 03:52:40.

“My ears were about to burst, they were so loud.”

Ferris emerged from the water with a strong swim split of 21:37, maintained his momentum on the bike with a 2:02:15 ride, and held steady in the run, clocking 1:20:32 to seal the victory. His time was just three minutes short of the 3:46:44 record set by Mexican athlete Mauricio Méndez in 2018, also in Lapu-Lapu.

Phillips, who started with a relatively slow swim time of 23:13, failed to close the gap during the bike leg, settling for 2:04:54. Despite posting the fastest run split of the day at 1:19:45, he fell short of catching Ferris.

Another bet from New Zealand, Sam Osborne, last year’s runner-up to Henri Schoeman of South Africa, finished third in 4:04:05 with splits of 22:38 (swim), 2:08:59 (bike), and 1:27:27 (run).

Ferris pushed through the final grueling kilometers of the run with grit, and a whole lot of crowd-powered adrenaline.

“They were probably the reason I held on in those last three kilometers. It wasn’t going pretty. But they just kept me going.”

Watkinson echoed the sentiment as the veteran campaigner returned to Cebu to win the women’s premier division of the event in dominant fashion — eight years after first claiming the same crown in 2017.

She clocked a total time of 4:14:22, with individual leg splits of 26:24 for the swim, 2:14:40 for the bike, and 1:28:17 for the run.

Australian Sophie Malowiecki led after the swim with a strong 24:13, but struggled on the bike, posting a 2:27:55, before finishing with the fastest run split of the day at 1:27:42, for a total time of 4:24:42. Kiwi Samantha Kingsford secured third place, finishing in 4:27:45 with splits of 25:43 (swim), 2:24:01 (bike), and 1:32:33 (run).