Raphael, Lundström in Sweden
Jan Raphael closed out his day with a 2:45:44 run to take the inaugural Ironman Sweden in 8:04:01. Åsa Lundström prevented a German podium sweep with her win and made the Swedish audience quite happy.
The fastest bike split among the men belonged to Sweden's Karl-Johan Danielsson and he was indeed the first back to the bike-run transition. He was followed about 2 minutes later by Germans Jan Raphael, Andi Boecherer and Dorian Wagner, and fellow Swede Jonas Djurback.
But it all came down to the run and Raphael charged into the lead early on. For a while Wagner and Boecherer were battling for second place, but eventually Boecherer started to fade a bit. Raphael crossed the line in 8:04:01 and with this win added the second Iroman title to his resume. He had previously taken Ironman Florida in 2006. Dorian Wagner finished second in 8:08:06 and Horst Reichel made the German podium sweep in the men's race perfect with his 8:10:12 finish.
Rebekka Essmueller led the relatively small women's Pro field out of the water in 55:03 and only fellow German Pro Dana Wagner managed to also stay sub-1 hour with her 58:55 swim.
On the bike Wagner showed her strength and recorded the fastest bike split of 4:48:48. By the time she reached T2 she had a 4 minute lead on Local favorite Åsa Lundström and more than 6.5 minutes on swim leader Essmueller.
But on the run Lundström was the fastest and moved into a lead she would not relinquish. She eventually crossed the line in 9:13:27 and had almost 10 minutes on runner-up Wagner. Emi Sakai from Japan moved past the fading Essmueller to grab the final podium spot.
Ironman Sweden/Kalmar
3.8k swim / 180k bike / 42k run
Top men
1. Jan Raphael (GER) 8:04:01
2. Dorian Wagner (GER) 8:08:06
3. Horst Reichel (GER) 8:10:12
4. Jonas Djurback (SWE) 8:10:51
5. Anton Blokhin (UKR) 8:113:56
6. Andreas Boecherer (GER) 5:15:26
7. Sergio Marques (POR) 8:16:21
8. Karl-Johan Danielsson (SWE) 8:21:04
9. Teemu Lemmettylä (FIN) 8:21:51
10. Christophe Bastie (FRA) 8:21:54
Top women
1. Åsa Lundström (SWE) 9:13:27
2. Dana Wagner (GER) 9:22:32
3. Emi Sakai (JAP) 9:34:36
4. Rebekka Essmueller (GER) 9:39:02
5. Stine Møllebro (DEN) 9:47:11
