Schildknecht, Matter at home
Ronnie Schildknecht and Sybille Matter used home court advantage to win the 2009 Ironman Switzerland. The second place finishers in both the men's and the women's event also hail from Switzerland.
The men
For Schildknecht this win was his third title in a row in Zürich and he also has been undefeated at the 70.3 event in Switzerland for the last 3 years. There were quite a few contenders this year willing to stand in the way of Schildknecht, but he did not play along and eventually won the race in 8:20:00. Fellow Swiss pro Stefan Riesen was the runner-up about 11 minutes later despite the slow swim he is known for. Torsten Abel finished in third place and that was the best Ironman race to date for this German pro.
"My legs felt ok and I had a good rhythm. I ran the first 10.5k under 40 minutes. After lap 2 I was about 10 minutes ahead but the last 15k still really hurt. But as the winner I didn't care much about that," said Schildknecht to slowtwitch.
The women
The battle in the women's race was mostly for second place as Sybille Matter took charge immediately to defend her title from 2008. For a while it looked like Caroline Steffen might be spoiling the plan but Steffen paid for her hard pace and faded later in the race and almost dropped out of the top 10. That left the door wide open for Matter who successfully defended her title in a time of 9:14:35. Swiss pro Monica Lehmann ran down Lisbeth Kristensen for second place and the Danish pro had to be content with third place.
EWZ Ironman Switzerland
Zürich, Switzerland / July 12, 2009
Top 10 men
1. Ronnie Schildknecht (SWI) 8:20:00
2. Stefan Riesen (SWI) 8:31:10
3. Torsten Abel (GER) 8:36:38
4. Uwe Kappelhoff (GER) 8:39:18
5. Pieter Helin (BEL) 8:39:55 *AG M25-29
6. Christophe Bastie (FRA) 8:44:24
7. Patrick Jaberg (SWI) 8:47:51
8. Rafael Wyss (SWI) 8:50:16
9. Ueli Bieler (SWI) 8:50:23 *AG M25-29
10. Kit Stokes (GBR) 8:50:30 *AG M35-39
Top 10 women
1. Sibylle Matter (SWI) 9:14:35
2. Monika Lehmann (SWI) 9:25:05
3. Lisbeth Kristensen (DEN) 9:25:37
4. Sarah Schütz (SWI) 9:29:13
5. Donna Phelan (USA) 9:31:30
6. Simone Benz (SWI) 9:32:59 *AG F25-29
7. Camilla Lindholm (SWE) 9:38:12
8. Silvia Balbach (GER) 9:39:23 * AG F30-34
9. Irene Kinnegim (NED) 9:41:49
10. Caroline Steffen (SWI) 9:44:38
