James Cunnama was the athlete to control the inaugural IRONMAN Hamburg from the get-go. The 34-year old South African was among the best swimmers in the group and kept cool, especially during the first part of the race. Cunnama went onto the bike course with Germans Horst Reichel, Markus Fachbach, and Alexander Schilling shortly behind the fastest swimmer, Carlos Lopez. From that moment on, he paced himself and focused on his strengths. Starting onto the second half of the bike course, he pushed the speed and dropped the rest. Although Fachbach tried to keep the gap small, he was not able to get closer to the lead than 12 minutes when he came off the bike. Seven years after winning IRONMAN Florida and celebrating a lot of podium finishes in the meantime, Cunnama again soaked in the breath-taking emotion of winning an IRONMAN. He proved the IRONMAN Hamburg marathon course a very fast one in 2:40 and with an almost sub-8 finish. It was a new personal best in IRONMAN racing for Cunnama and a fantastic end of a sensational race.
Daniela Saemmler came into the women’s competition as a top favorite. Five weeks after winning her home race at IRONMAN Austria, Wutti seemed to be the fastest woman in the field on paper. But this time her running strengths were a little less effective compared to normal performances due to her win in Klagenfurt. While everyone was watching out for the Austrian to make up ground on the run, Saemmler was already far away in first place. One week after her 29th birthday, she exited the water in first place and then hammered on the bike. The only sub-5 bike split in the women’s field on a cool and windy day in Hamburg was Saemmler’s key to nail the win. Thanks to good running conditions, she had no reason to worry about her chasers in the marathon.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Cunnama, James RSA 8:00:36
2 Reichel, Horst DEU 8:22:27
3 Fachbach, Markus DEU 8:25:36
4 Lopez Diaz, Carlos ESP 8:35:36
5 Schilling, Alexander DEU 8:42:05
Top 5 Pro Women
1 Sämmler, Daniela DEU 9:07:49
2 Wutti, Eva AUT 9:23:35
3 Moeller, Kristin DEU 9:39:43
4 Wassink-Hitzert, Sandra NED 9:48:37
5 Walter, Verena DEU 9:52:03