Ronnie Schildknecht reeled in Mathias Hecht and held off a hard charging Alonso Clemente to win the 2011 Ironman Switzerland for the 5th time. Karin Thürig also defended her title in the women's race and now looks to close out her career at the Ironman World Championships in Kona.
Clemente Alonso was first out of the water but he was soon passed on the bike first by Mathias Hecht and then by defending champion Ronnie Schildknecht. Hecht rode a very fine 4:35:20 and that time would be the day's best, but Schildknecht managed to stay quite close with a 4:36:11. Alonso's 4:51:38 brought the Spaniard to the bike-run transition in third place.
Schildknecht caught Hecht very soon and with a 2:48:43 marathon ran to his 5th title at Ironman Switzerland. Fastest run of the day though belonged to Alonso whose 2:41:58 allowed him to finish second while Hecht finished third.
"This was certainly my most beautiful victory in Zürich. I hit a low during the first 60km on the bike and couldn't ride as fast as usually. That was mentally very tough. But when I noticed that my gap to Mathias was shrinking on the second lap of the bike I know I could do it. My disadvantage dropped from 5 to 2 minutes - and when I switched to the run I know I could do it. This 5th victory was really something special for me," said Schildknecht after his win.
Amy Marsh's 55:46 swim was best among the females just about 7 minutes faster than Karin Thürig and the only Female Pro to go sub 1 hour.
Thürig though set a wicked pace on the bike and recorded a 4:51:19 bike split to reach the bike-run transition in first place and about 4 minutes up on Marsh, whose 5:02:12 time was next best. Swiss Pro Regula Rohrbach followed next but was well behind the 2 leaders, and that was even more so true for Erika Csomor who reached T2 in 4th position.
Thürig though ran well too and her 3:06:41 time was 5 minutes faster than Marsh and gave her the title again in 9:03:26. That leaves one more big race for the fast Swiss Pro as she had announced that Kona this year would be the final race of her illustrious career. Marsh held on to second place in 9:11:36 and Csomor rounded out the podium in 9:36:59.
Ironman Switzerland
Zurich, Switzerland / July 10, 2011
Top men
1. Ronnie Schildknecht (SUI) 8:19:51
2. Clemente Alonso (ESP) 8:27:56
3. Mathias Hecht (SUI) 8:30:26
4. Cyril Viennot (FRA) 8:36:02
5. Mike Aigroz (SUI) 8:38:21
6. Sergio Marques (POR) 8:48:01
7. Rafael Wyss (SUI) 8:51:36
8. Mike Schifferle (SUI) 8:53:57
9. Damien With (FRA) 8:56:34 * AG M25-29
10. Ueli Bieler (SUI) 9:07:08
Top women
1. Karin Thürig (SUI) 9:03:26
2. Amy Marsh (USA) 9:11:36
3. Erika Csomor (HUN) 9:36:59
4. Regula Rohrbach (SUI) 9:42:18
5. Sandra Patt (SUI) 10:08:46 * AG W40-44
6. Jana Candrova (CZE) 10:09:15
7. Nicole Best (GER) 10:12:08 * AG W40-44
8. Annamaria Halasz (HUN) 10:12:38 * AG W25-29
9. Isabelle Friedli (FRA) 10:14:43 * AG W25-29
10. Barbara Egloff (SUI) 10:15:00 * AG W35-39
