Triathlon: The Ironman 70.3 world champion can also do it over long distances. In the best weather conditions in Frankfurt, Sebastian Kienle dismissed the reigning Hawaii champion Fred van Lierde and Jan Frodeno.
After swimming, Frodeno was initially in front. But luck was not on the side of the Beijing Olympic champion on his long-distance debut. He had to stop three times on the bike and put on a new tube. As a result, he lost a lot of time to Van Lierde, who had come out of the water behind him. Above all, however, the birthday child Kienle was able to benefit from this.
Thanks to a new best bike time, Kienle was the first to switch to the final running distance. And here he managed to keep the Belgian Van Lierde in check. In the end he was the only competitor to stay under eight hours with a time of 7:55:14 hours. Behind it, Frodeno literally plowed over the Frankfurt asphalt. With the best running time of the favorites, he finally finished third.
Corinne Abraham, a Brit, won the women's race. In an extremely close race, she prevailed against Liz Lyles from the USA and Gina Crawford from New Zealand. Fourth was Kristin Möller, thanks to an excellent marathon.
Kienle and Abraham are also the new Ironman European champions.