The 2026 DESCENTE IRONMAN 70.3 Yunnan Dali has officially come to a close.

Set against the dramatic landscape of Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake, the race challenged athletes across the swim, bike and run. HoloSport joined the event as its official designated swim-goggle brand, supporting athletes on-site and seeing the HoloSwim 3 Pro used in a demanding open-water race environment.

Five HoloSport athletes delivered standout performances. Together, they earned two age-group victories and three age-group runner-up finishes—and all five placed inside the overall top eight.

Full event information is available on the official IRONMAN 70.3 Dali race page.

Two Age-Group Wins, Three Runner-Up Finishes

HoloSport ambassadors Cao Junyu and Liu Debin raced alongside HoloSport community athletes Cai Ke, Jiang Hongwei and Huang Yifan. All five finished among the first eight athletes in the overall standings:

• Cao Junyu finished in 4:04:04, placing second in his age group and third overall.
• Cai Ke finished in 4:11:10, winning his age group and placing fifth overall.
• Jiang Hongwei finished in 4:13:44, placing second in his age group and sixth overall.
• Liu Debin finished in 4:14:27, winning his age group and placing seventh overall.
• Huang Yifan finished in 4:16:07, placing second in his age group and eighth overall.

The five results accounted for two age-group titles, three age-group runner-up finishes and five of the first eight places overall.

Equipment can support an athlete on race day, but it does not replace preparation, fitness or sound decision-making. These results belonged first and foremost to the athletes who trained for them and carried that work through the full course.

Cao Junyu Aimed for 28 Minutes—and Swam 26

Before the race, Cao Junyu had set a target of 28 minutes for the swim. He completed it in approximately 26 minutes.

In his post-race interview, Cao explained that he began drifting to the left during the second half of the swim. The directional feedback from his HoloSwim 3 Pro helped him notice the problem and correct his course.

“My target before the race was a 28-minute swim, but I finished in 26. During the second half, I kept drifting to the left. The HoloSport goggles helped me correct my direction in time, which was a big help.”

Open-water swimmers rarely travel in a perfectly straight line. Breathing to one side, an uneven stroke and changing water conditions can all affect direction. The longer a swimmer remains off course, the more unnecessary distance they may cover.

For Cao, the value of the compass was not that it removed every need to look ahead. It gave him additional directional information between sightings, allowing him to recognise the drift and respond sooner.

Swimmers should still sight for course buoys, other competitors and changing conditions. Compass guidance is a useful reference, not a replacement for direct awareness or race instructions.

How Liu Debin Uses the Compass in Training

Liu Debin uses the HoloSwim 3 Pro not only in competition, but also during regular swim training.

For him, the compass serves two related purposes. During an open-water race, it helps him maintain direction and swim a straighter line. In the pool, he uses the directional feedback to examine whether his breathing movement is affecting his alignment.

“I use the HoloSwim 3 Pro both in races and during regular training. In competition, the compass helps me hold my direction and swim a straighter line. In training, I can use it to monitor how far I turn my head when I breathe. The live data then helps me judge whether the adjustment I made on the previous length was actually effective.”

The goggles do not diagnose a technical problem or replace feedback from a coach. What they can provide is information that helps a swimmer notice recurring patterns and evaluate whether a deliberate adjustment is producing a different result.

Seeing Key Information During the Swim

In open water, swimmers typically lift or rotate their heads to locate the next buoy. This sighting movement remains necessary, but doing it more often than needed can interrupt stroke rhythm and add physical effort.

HoloSwim 3 Pro places selected data—including pace and distance—within the swimmer’s field of view. Its compass also provides a directional reference between deliberate sightings.

Several finishers told the HoloSport team that this helped them feel more confident about their direction without constantly lifting their heads. Instead of waiting until a large deviation became obvious, they could make smaller corrections while maintaining a steadier rhythm.

One athlete told us he improved his previous best by five minutes. He highlighted the combination of clearer directional guidance, visible distance information and having a defined reference in front of him during the swim.

That result should be understood as one athlete’s personal experience, not a guaranteed performance improvement. A personal best depends on training, fitness, conditions, pacing and execution across the entire race—not on one piece of equipment alone.

Inside the HoloSport Event Booth

The HoloSport booth became a busy meeting point throughout the event.

For the Dali race, the team created a dedicated pre-race portrait area where athletes could take photographs before heading to the course. Participants also wrote down their finish goals, leaving a visible record of what they hoped to accomplish on race day.

Some arrived focused and quiet; others were eager to talk about the course ahead. The goals they wrote were personal, but the anticipation behind them was shared.

Once the race began, those written targets became something much more tangible: a sequence of decisions, difficult moments and reasons to keep moving.

Five Athletes, Five Places Inside the Top Eight

The results in Dali gave HoloSport plenty to celebrate.

Cao Junyu placed third overall, followed by Cai Ke in fifth, Jiang Hongwei in sixth, Liu Debin in seventh and Huang Yifan in eighth. Across their respective age groups, the five athletes earned two victories and three runner-up finishes.

Their feedback also showed that swimmers do not all use live information in the same way. Cao relied on directional guidance to recognise and correct a drift during the race. Liu uses the compass as both an open-water navigation reference and a training tool for observing how his breathing movement affects his direction.

These are specific experiences from individual athletes. They do not mean that every swimmer will achieve the same result, but they offer a grounded view of how AR swim technology can fit into real training and competition.

On to the Next Start Line

From the opening strokes of the swim to the final steps of the run, every athlete who reached the finish line in Dali had a story of persistence behind the result.

“See Your Swim” is more than a slogan for HoloSport. It reflects our aim to help swimmers understand what is happening in the water while there is still time to respond—whether that means checking pace, monitoring distance or correcting direction.

IRONMAN 70.3 Dali may be over, but the next training session and the next start line are already ahead. HoloSport will continue meeting swimmers and triathletes at events in China and around the world, listening to how they train, race and use technology in the water.

Congratulations to every athlete who took on Dali—and especially to Cao Junyu, Cai Ke, Jiang Hongwei, Liu Debin and Huang Yifan for placing inside the overall top eight.