German athletes really delivered at the second edition of the IRONMAN Italy Emilia-Romagna. Andi Boecherer and Daniela Saemmler nailed dominant victories both in the men’s and in the women’s competition. One year after Andreas Dreitz had shown a remarkable race in Cervia, his fellow countryman Boecherer even highlighted Dreitz's inaugural victory. Even though the water temperatures were too high to allow wetsuits in the professional field, Germany’s former elite swimmer Lukasz Wojt initially managed a fantastic split of 45:29. Boecherer was part of a big chase group of ten athletes and 2:23 down after the swim. Similar to his performance at the IRONMAN Austria in July, Wojt tried to stay at the front on the bike as long as possible. He worked hard to keep the gap to Boecherer and the Italian co-favorite Giulio Molinari, but those two really pushed the pace early on. After less than 80 km's, the two chasers caught up with Wojt and started to set their own pace. Molinari stood at Boecherer’s wheel for a long time, before the 35-year old father of two embarked on a mission. Boecherer came off the bike with a lead of almost three minutes and started onto a fabulous marathon while Molinari started to struggle a bit after ranking third at the IRONMAN Copenhagen five weeks before and being third at the IRONMAN 70.3 Nice only six days before. Molinari dropped out on the run, and from that moment on there was no more threat for Boecherer. After being runner up at the IRONMAN South African Championship, at the IRONMAN Regensburg and at the IRONMAN European Championship Frankfurt in the past, Boecherer was full of emotions when he crossed the finish line as an IRONMAN champion for the first time in his career. He had come through tough moments in the past few months and really celebrated this win in Cervia just as his German compatriot Michael Ruenz who ran into silver in front of the third German on the podium, Julian Mutterer.
Saemmler was off and away early in women’s race to take the third IRONMAN victory of her career. Although she had a deficit of five minutes when she came out of the water, the 30-year old mother paced herself consistently to the front. The fastest swimmer, Beatrice Weiss from Austria, led the race for a long time, but after the first of two bike laps technical issues occured and she had to call it a day. Due to this drop-out, Saemmler was in front - and away. She got off the bike with a lead of almost twelve minutes over Carolin Lehrieder (GER) who remained in second place until Hungarian Gabriella Zelinka made the pass at the half way mark of the marathon. Saemmler nailed a course record while Austrian Bianca Steurer eventually rounded out the podium.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Boecherer, Andi DEU 8:01:50
2 Ruenz, Michael DEU 8:18:10
3 Mutterer, Julian DEU 8:23:38
4 Wojt, Lukasz DEU 8:25:55
5 Barclay, Reece DEU 8:33:17
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Saemmler; Daniela DEU 9:05:49
2 Zelinka, Gabriella HUN 9:19:51
3 Steurer, Bianca AUT 9:22:19
4 Lehrieder, Carolin DEU 9:28:22
5 De Nicola, Federica ITA 9:28:59