Marino Vanhoenacker of Belgium and Caroline Steffen of Switzerland won the men’s and women’s titles at the Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman European Championship today.
The Men
Vanhoenacker combined a 45:07 swim, 4:26:26 bike split and 2:48:19 marathon to finish in 8:03:31 with a 6:24 margin of victory over runner-up Sebastian Kienle of Germany and a 10:33 margin over 3rd place finisher Clemente Alonso-McKernan of Spain.
Vanhoenacker, who last year won his sixth Ironman Austria title and thereby broke Luc van Lierde’s 14-year-old Ironman record time by over 4 minutes, said he saw today’s victory on the tougher Frankfurt course as validation of his reputation:
"Today I had the opportunity show the people who have said that there hasn't been any competition in Austria over the last six years that I'm even better," Vanhoenacker told Ironman television interviewers. "Today I had a lot of doubts - the swim was incredibly fast, the bike was totally hard because of the (rainy) weather and Sebastian Kienle was pushing so hard. And it wasn’t so nice that Sebastian pushed so hard during the first 20 kilometers of the run."
Vanhoenacker stuck close to the lead pack in the swim. On the bike., Vanhoenacker and Kienle broke away as the Ironman record holder seemed to thrive in Belgiumesque rain and arrived in T2 with a 3:05 lead on Kienle, 11:03 on Jan Raphael, 11:05 on Stephane Poulat, and 12:10 on 2010 champion Andreas Raelert, who throughout the race was hampered by stomach troubles that led him to the toilets several times.
Vanhoenacker cemented his hold on the race with a second-fastest 2:48:19 run that added another 3:19 to his lead over Kienle.
Clemente Alonso McKernan advanced from 6th to 3rd place with a race-best 2:45:10 run that left him 4:09 short of Kienle but 3:32 ahead of Raelert. Raelert passed fellow German Jan Raphael just a kilometer from the end to take 4th place in 8:17:36, just 41 seconds ahead of Raphael.
The Women
Steffen combined a 48:58 swim and race-best splits of 4:52:34 for the bike and a 3:06:52 marathon run to finish in 8:52:33 with a 13 minutes 41 seconds margin of victory over runner-up Anja Beranek of Germany and 15:41 over 3rd place Corinne Abraham of Great Britain. Steffen’s performance was just 68 seconds slower than Chrissie Wellington’s course record set in 2008.
Steffen defended her 2011 Frankfurt title with a time that was 19 minutes 40 seconds faster. In 2011, Steffen was fighting a foot injury and suffered badly on the run and barely made it to the finish with a 30 seconds lead.
"On the bike it started raining today, and since the rain reminded me of conditions last year, I thought, ‘Oh no, not again,’” Steffen told finish line media. “But then the sun came out on the second lap on the bike. The goal today was to defend the title, with a time under 9 hours.”
Steffen obviously did far more than that. In fact, her 2012 performances have underlined that she is just a short distance behind the giant accomplishments of Wellington, who is taking a year off.
Earlier this year, Steffen posted a remarkable 8:34:51 time winning Ironman Melbourne, which was just 55 seconds slower than Wellington’s women’s Ironman record set at South Africa the year before.
With these performances, Steffen is more confident approaching the Ironman World Championship this October.
"I look forward to going back there and trying to set last year's record straight," she said.
Steffen led the Kona race until 10 kilometers to the finish where - again - leg pain forced her to slow down and walk. She she eventually finished 5th.
"The goal now is the World Championship title," Steffen said in a statement provided by media manager Caspar Coppetti. She says she is no longer afraid of the high pressure Kona marathon. "Finally, I can show the world that I can run!" she added.
Amanda Stevens led out the swim in 45:04, with Beranek (48:39) and Steffen 48:58) the only other women competitors to break 50 minutes. Beranek and Steffen quickly broke away on the bike, as Steffen’s race-best 4:52:34 bike split erased Beranek’s 19-seconds advantage on the swim and brought her to T2 in 5:44:26 with a 2:03 lead.
Yvonne Van Vlerken was next into T2, 12:36 later, but back problems forced the Dutch champion to withdraw in the run. Sophie Goos was 4th to T2 in 6:02:00, Susan Dietrich 5th in 6:03:22, Amanda Stevens 6th in 6:06:41, Mareen Hufe 7th in 6:07:11, Corinne Abraham 8th in 6:11:48 and Heather Wurtele 9th in 6:16:23.
Steffen put a stranglehold on the race with a race-fastest 3:06:52 marathon that was 11:14 better than Beranek, and just 1:22 better than fast closing Corinne Abraham, who advanced from 8th to 3rd with her 3:08:14 run.
Results
Men
1. Marino Vanhoenacker (BEL) 8:03:37
2. Sebastian Kienle (GER) 8:09:55
3. Clemente Alonso-McKernan (ESP) 8:14:04
4. Andreas Raelert (GER) 8:17:36
5. Jan Raphael (GER) 8:18:17
6. Jeremy Jurkiewicz (GER) 8:23:24
7. Stephan Vuckovic (GER) 8:31:37
8. Uwe Widmann (GER) 8:37:40
9. Alejandro Santamaria (ESP) 8:38:45
10. Bart Colpaert (BEL) 8:40:18
Women
1. Caroline Steffen (SUI) 8:52:33
2. Anja Beranek (GER) 9:05:41
3. Corinne Abraham (GBR) 9:21:03
4. Susan Dietrich (GER) 9:22:07
5. Sophie Goos (BEL) 9:28:03
6. Mareen Hufe (GER) 9:31:32
7. Amanda Stevens (USA) 9:33:10
8. Heather Wurtele (CAN) 9:42:10
9. Kristin Möller (GER) 9:43:48
10. Nina Pekerman (ISR) 9:55:38
