Sigrid Mutscheller (GER) earned her sixth World Championships title at the 2008 Winter Triathlon World Championships in Freudenstadt, Germany and Arne Post (NOR) defended his title en route to his fourth crown.
Carina Wasle (AUT) had a great start in the opening 7.5 k run in downtown Freudenstadt and built a lead of nearly 1:30. But Wasle dabbled in transition, allowing Mutscheller to gain almost 20 seconds. Once on the bike, Mutscheller slowly reeled in Wasle and by the time they came back into transition they were side-by-side.
In the final 10 k cross-country ski leg, Mutscheller proved to be too strong and surged ahead of Wasle. The defending champion was never challenged after that and crossed the finishline victorious just as she had done in five previous World Championships. Anke Kullman (GER) surged ahead to take the silver and Wasle had to be content with bronze.
“I’m really happy. It was such a challenge for me to win this in my hometown. I was very, very nervous before the race,” said Mutscheller. “During the race it was so hard for me on the bike to overtake Carina (Wasle) but I’m so happy I did.”
Shortly after Mutscheller’s historic win in the women’s race, German Florian Holzinger had the crowds cheering when he led the men into transition after the initial 7.5 k run.
Holzinger pushed the pace on the mountain bike too and came off the bike with a 1 minute lead. But a slow transition diminished that lead to less than 15 seconds and on the skis he quickly had Arne Post breathing down his neck. The defending champion had the fastest split of the day and easily earned his fourth World Championship title in a time of 1:37:30. Lebrun managed to take silver and Svanebo closed the day out strong to take the bronze. Holzinger dropped all the way back to eighth place and two-time World Champion Sigi Bauer of Austria was forced to pull out after a flat tire early on in the bike segment.
2008 Freudenstadt ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships
Elite Women's Final Results
7.5 k run, 12 k mountain bike, 10 k cross-country ski
Gold - Sigrid Mutscheller (GER) 1:51:04
Silver - Anke Kullman (GER) 1:52:25
Bronze - Carina Wasle (AUT) 1:53:20
4 - Camilla Hott Johansen (NOR) 1:54:01
5 - Pia Sundstedt (FIN) 1:54:16
6 - Rebecca Dussault (USA) 1:55:57
7 - Sarka Grabmullerova (CZE) 1:57:54
8 - Giuliana Lamastra (ITA) 1:58:58
9 - Anne Haug (GER) 1:59:59
10 - Klaudia Meisterhofer (AUT) 2:00:04
Final Men's Results
7.5 k run, 12 k mountain bike, 10 k cross-country ski
Gold - Arne Post (NOR) 1:37:30
Silver - Nicolas Lebrun (FRA) 1:39:16
Bronze - Andreas Svanebo (SWE) 1:39:39
4 - Heinz Planitzer (AUT) 1:40:09
5 - Alessandro De Gasperi (ITA) 1:40:44
6 - Uran Werner (AUT) 1:41:14
7 - Falk Göpfert (GER) 1:41:28
8 - Florian Holzinger (GER) 1:41:42
9 - Victor Lobo (ESP) 1:42:04
10 - Silvio Wieltschnig (AUT) 1:42:14
