Ironman Regensburg : Fachbach και Ellis Οι νικητές

Το μεγάλο φαβορί ο Andreas Raelert γύρισε τον αστράγαλό του σε μία από τις τελευταίες προπονήσεις του στο τρέξιμο και έτσι έτρεξε απλά και μόνο για την επικύρωση της θέσης του στην Κόνα. Είχε δηλώσει εδώ και πολλές μέρες ότι θα αφιέρωνε την συμμετοχή σε φιλανθρωπικούς οργανισμούς και για κάθε αθλητή που θα τον περνούσε θα έδινε 20 ευρώ για φιλανθρωπικούς σκοπούς. Τελικά τερμάτισε 335ος

Ο Γερμανός αθλητής της Commerzbank Markus Fachbach κολύπησε στα 47:19. Στην ποδηλασία έλεγχε τον αγώνα μαζί με τον επίσης Γερμανό Horst Reichel. Ομως το καλύτερο ποδήλατο το έκανε ο Frank Vytrisal με 4:33:36

Στο τρέξιμο ο Fachbach πήρε γρήγορα την πρωτοπορία και δεν χρειάστηκε να ανησυχήσει αφού τερμάτισε με μεγάλη διαφορά από τους υπόλοιπους αθλητές.

Organiser’s Press Release in English

Germany’s Markus Fachbach and American Mary Beth Ellis took the second edition of Ironman Regensburg. Fachbach, 28, celebrated his first Ironman victory in 8:29:16. Ellis dominated the field, especially in the marathon, as she did in her Ironman debut at Ironman Austria last month.

In the men’s race, Fachbach had a good swim (47:19) and seemed to control the race on the bike. The Commerzbank team athlete was the fourth man out of the water, only a few seconds behind the fastest swimmer, age group athlete David Bartlett from Great Britain (46:41). Fachbach finished the swim together with Andreas Raelert.

Raelert had been the favorite for the victory – but he twisted his ankle during one of his last running sessions. Competing to validate his spot at the Ford Ironman World Championship, he decided ahead of time to dedicate his race to charity. Before the race he announced that he would donate 20 Euros for each athlete that got to the finish line ahead of him. His overall position at the end of the race: 335.

Fachbach took the lead on the bike very early, alternating the top spot with Horst Reichel from Darmstadt. On the long uphill section of the second lap, Reichel lost some time to Fachbach. With 30 km to go, Fachbach was passed by Frank Vytrisal, who used the best bike split of the day (4:33:36 – an impressive time considering the rainy and windy conditions on the bike course) to lead the race into the marathon.

After a few kilometers of the run, Fachbach re-took the lead and would stay at the front for the rest of the race. Altough he had problems with his stomach, he continued on to his first first Ironman victory by over eight minutes in a time of 8:29:16. Vytrisal lost second to Stefan Riesen in the last few kilometers of the race. Riesen’s 8:36:59 got him to the line just 13 seconds ahead of Vytrisal. Reichel came in fourth in 8:42:07, passing the fastest age group athlete, Bas Diederen (8:42:34), in the closing kilometers of the run. Ironman legend Lothar Leder was sixth (8:45:30).

Lothar’s wife, Nicole, completed the Leder family success in Regensburg with her third place in the women’s race thanks to a 3:07:33 marathon split, which got her passed country-woman Heidi Jesberger over the closing stages of the race. Leder’s split was second-fastest on the day – to the woman who dominated the day in just her second Ironman race, Mary Beth Ellis.

Ellis managed a 3:06:44 run split to complete  and made her little masterpiece at Ironman Regensburg. She was the fastest woman in the water, but fell back during the bike. The bike was dominated by Mirjam Weerd from the Netherlands, Germans Katja Rabe (second in Regensburg last year) and Annett Kamenz. Weerd would start the marathon first, followed Kamenz. Ellis biked solid through the first 150 km and started the marathon in third, only 2:17 behind Weerd.

Ellis took the lead by the half-marathon mark and celebrated a dominating victory in 9:18:55. Kamenz came in second – her time was 9:28:23. Behind her was Leder (9:30:27), Jesberger (9:32:42) while last year’s runner-up, Katja Rabe, had a lot of problems with her stomach – she finished in fifth position (9:44:45) ahead of Katrin Esefeld from Germany (9:49:53).

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