The water was rough, choppy and with strong current as athletes battled the challenging conditions. The one who led from the very beginning was the Spanish Guillem Rojas in 45:34.
Jesper Svensson (SWE) took over the leading position on the bike already on the first kilometer and started a lonely race from then on. There was a (German) chasing group building up behind him including Christian Kramer, Marcus Herbst and Franz Löschke – not being able to catch Svensson. At km 90 he was already more than five minutes ahead of his chasers and reached T2 with a massive gap (+06:19). Herbst came in second and Kramer third.
Svensson started the run just as he had finished the bike: with a huge head start towards his chasers. At about 8 km‘s Franz Löschke came from behind making efforts to close the 6 minutes gap. At km 30 he was able to overtake leading Svensson but hit the wall after 10 km in the lead. Svensson made it back to 1st position again and it followed a hard and exciting battle along the final 2 km. Svensson eventually won the race in 8:05:56. Löschke just came in close behind him in 8:06:07. 3rd got the Spanish Miquel Blanchart Tinto in 8:14:23.
On the women’s side it was Hanna Maksimava (BLR) who came out of the water first. 2 times winner Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) took over the leading position on the bike already at the beginning and was chased by a group consisting of Natalie Seymour (GBR), Eva Wutti (AUT) and Laura Philipp (GER). With some changes amongst the four of them Philipp finally took over the lead and wouldn’t give it up again. The second half on the bike was dominated by Philipp being chased by Van Vlerken. But the Dutch fell back more and more and Philipp could increase the gap up to 7 minutes.
She reached T2 first and ran away on the marathon. Van Vlerken wasn’t able to catch the German suffering from digestion problems. On the second half of the run it was already a 20 – 30 minutes difference between the two of them. Laura Philipp won her debut in 08:34:57 and even set a new course record (breaking Van Vlerken’s from 2017). Van Vlerken was overtaken by Hanna Maksimava on the final km’s who got second in 09:08:18. Yvonne Van Vlerken came in third in 9:10:49 after a very hard race.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Svensson, Jesper SWE 8:05:56
2 Loeschke, Franz GER 8:06:07
3 Blanchart Tinto, Miquel ESP 8:14:23
4 Mahr, Sebastian GER 8:17:00
5 Renc, Tomas CZE 8:19:02
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Philipp, Laura GER 8:34:57
2 Maksivama, Hanna BLR 9:08:18
3 Van Vlerken, Yvonne NED 9:10:49
4 Krivankova, Simona CZE 9:19:06
5 Hooijman, Pleuni NED 9:30:36