Raelert, Beranek take Wiesbaden
Michael Raelert took the title at the European 70.3 Championships in Wiesbaden, Germany in a course record time of 4:03:58. Anja Beranek grabbed the win in the women's race in 4:36:09.
Ivan Vassiliev led the men's field out of the water in 21:51, but he had Stephane Poulat and Michael Raelert right with him.
The 3 swim leaders rode up front early on during the bike segment, but Bart Aernouts and Boris Stein were steadily gaining on them. Filip Ospaly meanwhile started to fall away after having been reasonably close to the front of the race. Aernouts had the race best split of 2:25:12, followed by Stein who managed a 2:25:17, but about a minute behind the Belgian.
Raelert reached T2 together with Aernouts, Degham and Mikel Elgezabal, but with a swift transition he was first out on the run. He steadily pulled away from his competitors and his race best run split time of 1:11:16 allowed him to cross the finish line in course record time of 4:03:58. Aernouts crossed the line in second place and Boris Stein ran down Degham to take third place.
Jodie Swallow was first out of the water in the women's race and she actually managed to build up a nice advantage during the swim.
During the bike segment Anja Beranek and Virginia Berasategui showed quite some bike prowess and recorded race best splits of 2:42:28 and 2:43:13 respectively. Swallow rode a 2:50:31 and that allowed her to reach the bike-run transition in third place.
Beranek looked solid during the run too, but with a nice advantage (she had swum 90 second faster than Berasategui) did not really have to push herself too much. Best run split belonged to Julia Gajer with a 1:23:20, but she only managed to catch Swallow. Beranek crossed the line in first place almost 3.5 minutes up on Berasategui.
Ironman European 70.3 Championships
Wiesbaden, Germany / August 12, 2012
Top men
1. Michael Raelert (GER) 4:03:58
2. Bart Aernouts (BEL) 4:06:28
3. Boris Stein (GER) 4:07:51
4. Tourny Degham (FRA) 4:08:12
5. Ivan Vassiliev (RUS) 4:08:36
6. Filip Ospaly (CZE) 4:10:19
7. Patrick Lange (GER) 4:12:40
8. Mikel Elgezabal (ESP) 4:14:24
9. Andrew Russell (CAN) 4:14:33
10. Johannes Moldan (GER) 4:16:17
Top women
1. Anja Beranek (GER) 4:36:09
2. Virginia Berasategui (ESP) 4:40:30
3. Julia Gajer (GER) 4:40:39
4. Jodie Swallow (GBR) 4:42:26
5. Lucy Gossage (GBR) 4:44:09
