Rodolphe Von Berg of the U.S. and Melissa Hauschildt of Australia won the pro titles at the Ironman 70.3 European Championship at Elsinore, Denmark.

Men

Von Berg started with a 3rd-best 22:12 swim that left him 4 seconds behind swim leader Adam Bowden of Great Britain and 2 seconds behind defending champ Michael Raelert of Germany, Von Berg and Raelert charged together into the lead, Raelert arriving first into T2 after a second-best 2:01:37 split that put him 2 seconds ahead of Von Berg, 1:48 ahead of Bowden and Emilio Aguayo Munoz of Spain and 3:03 ahead of Bart Aernouts of Belgium, Maurice Clavel of Germany and Philipp Koutny and Ruedi Wild of Switzerland.

After Raelert withdrew with an apparent leg injury, the race turned into a two-man duel with Bowden and Von Berg. Von Berg took the early lead but Bowden – coming off a 1:10:05 run split that was 2 seconds better than Javier Gomez a few weeks ago at Ironman 70.3 Barcelona – quickly caught up. While Bowden was on pace to match his run at Barcelona, Von Berg remained in touch, 20 seconds behind the Englishman at the 15 kilometer mark. At that point, Von Berg clawed back and rejoined Bowden in an elbow-to-elbow duel with 2 kilometers to go.

The two men stayed together until, with 400 meters to go, Von Berg sprinted away to victory. After a second-fastest 1:12:23 half marathon, Von Berg crossed the line in 3:40:22 with a 30 seconds margin of victory over Bowden (1:10:44 run split) and 4:16 over 3rd place finisher Bart Aernouts of Belgium (1:13:08 run).

The win was Von Berg’s second impressive win this spring, coming after breaking Jesse Thomas’ six-race win streak at the Wildflower long course last month.

“The biggest win of my career!” Von Berg wrote on Facebook. “Over the moon with how things are progressing.”

Women

Helle Frederiksen of Denmark zoomed away to a 2:43 lead after a women's-best 24:34 swim. The surprise was that her first pursuer was Melissa Hauschildt of Australia, the two-time Ironman 70.3 World Champion who has for a long time struggled to minimize her deficit out of the water. The two leaders would never be challenged by chasers who started 4:48 to 6:14 behind - Sara Svensk of Sweden, Heini Hartikainen of Finland, Xenia Luxem of Belgium and Trina Boye Larsen of Denmark.

After a long chase, Hauschildt caught Frederiksen after 80 kilometers of the ride. After a women’s-best 2:14:29 bike split that was 3:39 better than Frederiksen, Hauschildt entered T2 with a 52 seconds lead on her Danish rival and 5:58 on Svensk.

While Frederiksen gave up ground grudgingly, Hauschildt’s women’s-best 1:20:44 half marathon put another 1:29 on Frederiksen. Hauschildt thus finished in 4:07:18 with a 2:25 margin of victory on Frederiksen and 9:53 on 3rd place finisher Svensk.

Hauschildt thus maintained a perfect record in 2018 after wins at the Port of Tauranga half, Ironman 70.3 Texas and Ironman Texas.

Ironman 70.3 European Championships
Elsinore, Denmark
June 17, 2018
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 131 mi.

Results

Pro Men

1. Rodolphe Von Berg (USA) 3:40:22 S 22:12 T1 3:10 B 2:01:35 T2 1:04 R 1:12:23
2. Adam Bowden (GBR) 3:40:52 S 22:08 T1 3:12 B 2:03:27 T2 1:24 R 1:10:44
3. Bart Aernouts (BEL) 3:44:38 S 24:57 T1 3:37 B 2:01:19 T2 1:38 R 1:13:08
4. Ruedi Wild (SUI) 3:44:46 S 22:28 T1 3:23 B 2:04:05 T2 1:26 R 1:13:27
5. Max Neumann (AUS) 3:45:11 S 22:29 T1 3:28 B 2:06:28 T2 1:22 R 1:12:27
6. Emilio Aguayo Munoz (ESP) 3:46:39 S 22:17 T1 3:16 B 2:03:07 T2 1:26 R 1:16:35
7. Yvan Jarrige (FRA) 3:46:46 S 22:29 T1 3:13 B 2:06:44 T2 1:11 R 1:13:10
8. Philipp Koutny (SUI) 3:47:03 S 23:43 T1 3:23 B 2:02:52 T2 1:33 R 1:15:35
9. Maurice Clavel (GER) 3:48:06 S 23:53 T1 2:59 B 2:03:11 T2 1:16 R 1:16:49
10. Michael Weiss (AUT) 3:48:11 S 26:23 T1 3:44 B 2:03:21 T2 1:33 R 1:13:12

Pro Women

1. Melissa Hauschildt (AUS) 4:07:18 S 27:17 T1 3:41 B 2:14:29 T2 1:09 R 1:20:44
2. Helle Frederiksen (DEN) 4:09:43 S 24:34 T1 3:37 B 2:18:08 T2 1:12 R 1:22:13
3. Sara Svensk (SWE) 4:17:11 S 29:21 T1 3:55 B 2:18:08 T2 1:28 R 1:24:21
4. Xenia Luxem (BEL) 4:27:02 S 30:45 T1 3:59 B 2:21:33 T2 1:54 R 1:28:52
5. Heini Hartikainen (FIN) 4:42:04 S 30:41 T1 3:41 B 2:37:16 T2 1:33 R 1:28:54
6. Trina Boye Larsen (DEN) 4:421:28 S 30:48 T1 4:03 B 2:29:45 T2 1:46 R 1:36:08