News update Ironman Hawaii 2016: The German triathletes celebrated a memorable triumph last night at the Ironman in Kona/Hawaii. Defending champion Jan Frodeno won ahead of 2014 triumphant Sebastian Kienle... and a new star rose with Patrick Lange... the Darmstadt native completed the podium in third place.
In the women's category, defending champion Daniela Ryf celebrated a terrific victory. The Swiss won the title in a new record time of 8:46:46 hours - "that was the best race of my career," Ryf said afterwards on ARD. She surpassed second-place finisher Mirinda Carfrae by a full 25 minutes. Third was the American Heather Jackson. Anja Beranek from Fürth came fourth and thus confirmed her 70.3 European Champion title.
The men's duel between Frodeno and Kienle was expected by many experts. Kienle came out of the water four minutes behind – another minute more than last year; that seemed like too much. But he did a brilliant bike split and quickly took the lead. He entered the second transition zone with a few seconds lead. But Frodeno overtook again in the transition zone and seemed to be running towards victory. Surprisingly, Kienle's counterattack came immediately and he ran the 100 meters to Frodo in order to tackle the remaining 40 km shoulder to shoulder with him.
The two appeared to be enjoying the running session together, chatting and even seeming to joke. But after about 20 km Frodeno, the 2008 Olympic champion, got serious and ran about 90 seconds ahead. The lead then steadily increased to three and a half minutes at the finish. In the end, Patrick Lange came within 70 seconds of Kienle.
In the meantime, a third German was trying to break a legendary record from far behind. None other than the icon Mark Allen has held the marathon record in Hawaii since 1989 with a time of 2:39:45. Ironman rookie Patrick Lange from Darmstadt – protégé of ex-Champ Faris al Sultan – literally flew up, overtook one after the other and was 19 seconds faster than old master Allen in the end. The 27-year-old Lange finished third.
Already in 1997 there was a German triple victory in Kona. This time, Andreas Böcherer in fifth place and Boris Stein in seventh place complete the outstanding top ten result of the German triathletes.
A more detailed report with lots of great pictures will follow shortly!
The result of the Ironman Hawaii 2016
- Jan Frodeno, GER 08:06:30
- Sebastian Kienle, GER 08:10:02
- Patrick Lange, GER 08:11:14
- Ben Hoffman, USA 08:13:00
- Andi Boecherer, GER 08:13:24
- Tim O'Donnell, USA 08:16:20
- Boris Stein, GER 08:16:56
- Bart Aernauts, BEL 08:20:30
- Ivan Rana, ESP 08:21:51
- Frederik Van Lierde, BEL 08:21:59