Triathlon World Championships: O´Donnell wants to defend his title: Also top women van Vlerken and Steffen will participate at Immenstadt
Triathlon World Championships: O´Donnell wants to defend his title: Also top women van Vlerken and Steffen will participate at Immenstadt
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Triathlon World Championships: O´Donnell wants to defend his title
Also top women Yvonne van Vlerken and Caroline Steffen will participate at Immenstadt
Immenstadt/Oberstaufen (jm).
Big names at the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships (4/130/30) in the Allgäu holiday region Immenstadt-Oberstaufen (Germany) on August, 1: Together with Timothy O´Donnell from the USA and the Danes Martin Jensen and Jimmy Johnson, Caroline Steffen (Switzerland) and Yvonne van Vlerken (Holland) not only the title holder and the third-place finisher of 2009?s World Championships but also the runner-up and the second runner-up of the latest European Championships 2010 will compete against each other.
At the resent Long Distance World Championships in Perth (Australia) O?Donnell and Jensen stood on the winners` podium as gold and bronze medalists. Last year the American won after an exciting competition only in the final course. Immenstadt Organizer Michael Rathke points out: “It is great to host two men of this calibre among the participants. We are very excited how the top favourites of the Australian World Championships will handle our difficult cycle course.? At the Ironman 70.3 Florida in Mai O´Donnell already proved that he is in excellent shape as he won this competition for the first time.
End of June Martin Jensen, third of the World Championships in Perth won the long distance silver medal in the European Championships in Spain while his compatriot Jimmy Johnson came third. With Jonas Djurback from Sweden who knocked the German Haiwaii winner of 2005 Faris Al-Sultan off the winners` platform at the Ironman 70.3 Great Britain in Somerset another Scandinavian joins the circle of favourites. The same goes for the Italian champion Matteo Annovazzi and Pedro Gomes from Portugal.
Among the women Yvonne van Vlerken from the Netherlands is one of the great favourites. Only since 2007 she is participating in the long distance ? with amazing success: she won right at her premiere over the Ironman distance of 226 km in Roth (Franconia, Germany) and substantiated this success with further top results. At her second participation in Roth in 2008 Yvonne van Vlerken who had been very successful as duathlete (running and cycling) caused a sensation: in 8:45:48 hours the 31-year-old Yvonne ran towards the new world record in the Ironman distance and cracked as first athlete the 14-year-old world record of Paula Newbie-Frasier (Simbabwe) by 5:03 minutes. Michael Rathke knows: “Yvonne van Vlerken is one of the favourites no matter in which competition she participates.? In Roth in 2008 Erika Csomor from Hungary also cracked the former record but in the end she was 75 seconds slower than van Vlerken. She will participate in Immenstadt, too.
A hot title contender is the Swiss Caroline Switzerland now living in Australia. She finished the Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt in July behind the title defending champion Sandra Wallenhorst from Germany with a deficit of 2:15 minutes although the 31-year-old was leading 5 hours. But then in the final marathon at km 36 she had to succumb to the superior forces of the German athlete. Nevertheless she is in good shape. In Frankfurt she had a new personal minimum time of 9:06:42. Steffen had a remarkable carreer and beside her parade event cycling she also feels very well in the water: for 10 years Steffen has been part of the Swiss national swim team (1993-2003) and won 17 Swiss titles. For 2 years she has also been part of the national cycling team (2007-2008). But then she has discovered her passion for triathlon (since 2009). This year Caroline Steffen has already celebrated three victories at the Ironman 70.3 series: in Geelong (Australia) Geelong (Australien), Singapore and in Rapperswill (Switzerland).
At the ITU triathlon long distance World Championships all in all 830 athletes from 30 nations will participate on August, 1. 38 athletes from Neu Zealand, 28 from South Africa and even 59 from the USA will be among them.
On July, 31, the day before the World Championship competition the 28th Allgäu Triathlon “Allgäu Classic? (2/80/20) will take place with about 650 participants. At the same time the triathlon weekend is the athletic highlight of Immenstadt`s 650th anniversary.
Further information:
Organising Committee Triathlon-WM 2010
Triathlon WM GmbH
Hofgartenstr. 1
87509 Immenstadt
Germany
phone: +49 – 83 23 / 986290
fax: +49 – 83 23 / 986221
mail:
home:
Media contact:
Press Office Triathlon-WM 2010, c/o Jensen media GmbH, Hemmerlestraße 4, 87700 Memmingen, Germany phone: +49 08331/99188-0, fax 99188-10, mail: , home:
Contact person: Ingo Jensen=418736″ width=”1″ height=”1″ />
