Press Release. For the first time an athlete from South Africa won the legendary Challenge Roth and he worked to measure today. Fort he 3.8k swim, the 180k bike ride and the 42.195k run he needed exactly 7:59:59 and thus stayed sub 8 hours by literally the blink of an eye. As this year‘s Challenge Roth was also the Official ETU Long Distance Triathlon European Championships, there was a second winner. Timo Bracht added the European Championship title to his second place finish today.
The race was dominated by a different man for a long time, though. Konstantin Bachor from Wolfsburg was one of the fastest swimmers and then performed an unbelievable ride on the bike. He put a distance of more than ten minutes between himself and the favorites who chased him together.
After the first kilometers of the run it became clear, though, that Bachor could not keep up the speed and with that his lead. Timo Bracht and James Cunnama chased him hard and could see the young German police officer after half of the marathon. They passed him shortly after that.
Now there was the question of who would have stamina to win, Timo Bracht from Ebersbach or James Cunnama? Both started in Roth for the third time, both are fast runners. In the end, Cunnama succeeded. „I could keep up my speed while Timo had problems for a little while, that made the difference today,“ was the winner’s comment at the finish. The difference was a mere 3 minutes and 29 seconds and you have to look back for quite a while to find a similarly close finish at Challenge Roth.
Cunnama had a hard time grasping what he just accomplished. „When you win Roth, you are someone in our sport,“ he commented. „For me, a dream comes true today.“
Third place and Silver in the European Championships went to likeable Mike Aigroz from Switzerland in 8:01:01 hours. Fourth place went to New Zealand’s veteran Cameron Brown (8:10:05).
That leaves the third place in the European Championships. The audience in Roth probably hoped that Konstantin Bachor could hang on to it but he had to let Stephen Bayliss from Great Britain pass on the last kilometer.
From a local viewpoint seventh place for Dorian Wagner will be memorable. He set a new record for an athlete from the county in 8:19:47 and became the successor of former record holder Bernd Eichhorn (Roth) who set it in 2005.
The „Best Old Race“ could register a new record in spectator numbers. About 200 000 spectators along along the course and in the Triathlon park in Roth watched the race in bright weather and comfortable temperatures of about 23 degrees- there was no rain throughout the entire day- and once again created the unique triathlon atmosphere Roth is so well-known for. Especially at the swim start, the Solar Hill, the Lände, Marktplatz Roth and during the finish of the winners and the European Champions the crowd roared. The audience will go on cheering and celebrating the roughly 5000 athletes who took on the 3.8k swim, 180k bike ride and 42.195k run individually or as a relay team.
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