Christian Alstadt of Germany won in his first try and Antonina Reznikov of Israel won her second in a row at the rugged and challenging Israman 226 Iron-distance triathlon at the southernmost point of Israel.

Israman 226 MEN

Alstadt made up for a serious deficit to defending champion and fellow German Till Schramm after the hilly bike leg and then passed Schramm, who pulled out of the race with a foot injury after 20 kilometers of the run. With a men's 2nd-fastest run, Alstadt also passed Dutchman Eric-Simon Strijk, who endeed up 5th overall.

Israeli favorite Dan Alterman led the swim in 58:24, but lost 22 minutes to Alstadt on the bike and began the run even further astern, trailing Schramm by 24 minutes , Alstadt by 21 minutes, Strijk by 19 minutes, Marco Corti of Italy by 10 minutes, Israeli Omri Gazit by 3 minutes. With a 3rd-fastest 3:09:13 run, Alterman passed everyone but Alstadt.

After a second-best 3:07:30 run, Alstadt finished in 9:29:01 with a 22:57 margin on Alterman and 27:54 on 3rd place finisher Marco Corti of Italy , who overcame a 30-minute deficit after the bike with a race-best 3:04:33 run.

Alstadt came to this independent, high prestige event with a strong resume which includes 4th overall at the 2017 German Long Distance National Championship and 11th at 2018 Challenge Roth.

Alterman, 38, is a six-time Israeli National Triathlon Champion and 2017 Israman winner, who finished 5th at the race last year.

Israman 226 WOMEN

Antonina Reznikov of Israel, who finished 3rd at the 2018 Powerman Zofingen Duathlon World championship and was the defending Israman 226 champion, cruised to a 10:37:14 winning time which gave her a 16:30 margin of victory over British long distance veteran Parys Edwards.

Reznikov started her day with a women's 3rd-best 1:16:23 swim split, 9 minutes down to women's swim leader Eleksandra Hryshyna of Ukraine and 6 minutes back of British pro Parys Edwards. After a women's-best 6:01:42 bike split, Reznikova arrived at T2 in a virtual tie with Edwards and 22 minutes ahead of Hryshnya.

Reznikov the jetted away to a by-far women's-best 3:19:07 marathon - 13 minutes better than her nearest rivals - to finish in 10:37:13 with a 16:30 margin of victory over Edwards and 34:46 over 3rd place finisher Hryshnya.

Israman 113 MEN

Defending Israman 113 champion Diego Van Looy of Belgium started with a 7th-best 32:55 split that put him 4:20 behind top swimmer Edan Apsimon of Israel. He was left behind on the bike leg by Jérémy Morel of France, who was 15 seconds behind Van Looy on the swim but 5 minutes better on the bike. Van Looy came off the bike in third place, 5 minutes behind Morel.

Whereupon the fleet-footed Belgian unleashed a world-class 1:12:55 half marathon which brought him past Morel at 16 kilometers, and to the finish in 4:33:32 with a 2:35 margin of victory over Morel and 11:35 over 3rd place Diederik Scheltinga of the Netherlands.

As a testimony to the difficulty of this half-Iron distance race, Van Looy said he took two months to recover from his victory at last year’s Israman 113.

Israman 113 WOMEN

Last year Martin Dogana broke both elbows in a pre-race bike crash before Israman. This year, the Italian long course veteran had fully recovered but was lying in bed with a fever the week before this race. After three days of sleep, Dogana was rested and ready to decimate the women's field. She combined a 36:10 swim, 3:22:39 bike split and a 1:36:26 run to finish in 5:35:17, which gave her a 10:13 margin of victory over runner-up Hadas Mazar of Israel and 42:49 over 3rd place finisher Inbar Zahavi of Israel.

Israman Triathlon
Eilat, Israel
January 26, 2019

Long Course S 2.4 mi. / B 112 mi. / R 26.2 mi.

Results

Men

1. Christian Alstadt (GER) 9:29:01 S 58:32 B 5:22:59 R 3:07:30
2. Dan Alterman (ISR) 9:51:58 S 58:24 B 5:44:18 R 3:09:14
3. Marco Corti (ITA) 9:56:55 S 1:08:46 B 5:43:35 R 3:04:33
4. Roy Feldman (ISR) 9:59:05 S 1:12:31 B 5:33:55 R 3:12:38
5. Erik-Simon Strijk (NED) 1:00:39 S 58:44 B 5:24:40 R 3:37:15
6. Omri Gazit (ISR) 10:02:49 S 58:28 B 5:41:05 R 3:23:15

Women

1. Antonina Reznikov (ISR) 10:37:14 S 1:16:23 B 6:01:42 R 3:19:07
2. Parys Edwards (GBR) 10:53:44 S 1:10:16 B 6:07:57 R 3:35:28
3. Oleksandra Hryshyna (UKR) 11:11:59 S 1:07:06 B 6:32:01 R 3:32:51
4. Simona Krivankova (CZE) 11:20:42 S 1:17:54 B 6:30:35 R 3:32:13
5. Irena Mazin (ISR) 12:08:54 S 1:29:02 B 6:41:22 R 3:58:28
6. Dora Heller (ISR) 13:20:25 S 1:47:49 B 7:08:51 R 4:23:54

Half Distance S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Results

Pro Men

1. Diego Van Looy (BEL) 4:33:32 S 32:55 B 2:47:40 R 1:12:55
2. Jeremy Morel (FRA) 4:36:07 S 33:10 B 2:42:38 R 1:22:18
3. Diederik Scheltinga (NED) 4:45:07 S 31:41 B 2:52:41 R 1:20:43
4. Massimo Cigana (ITA) 4:52:32 S 32:49 B 2:50:02 R 1:29:39
5. Edan Epsimon (ISR) 4:52:57 S 28:34 B 3:07:45 R 1:16:37
6. Tom Marmarelli (ISR) 5:01:47 S 32:57 B 3:01:24 R 1:27:25

Pro Women

1. Martina Dogana (ITA) 5:35:17 S 36:10 B 3:22:39 R 1:36:26
2. Hadas Mazar (ISR) 5:45:30 S 42:44 B 3:21:32 R 1:41:11
3. Inbar Zahavi Meyer (ISR) 6:18:06 S 46:53 B 3:43:19 R 1:47:52