The 2008 Ironman Hawaii runner-up Yvonne van Vlerken talked to slowtwitch about her recent coaching change from Mario Huys to Mark Allen, the 2009 race calendar, doping and lots more.
by Herbert Krabel, January 7, 2009
Ryan Trebon recently won the US national cyclo cross championships in Kansas City, MO and is currently spending several weeks in Europe to race a lot of high-profile cross races. The 6’5″ Corvallis, OR resident had a few words with slowtwitch.
New Zealand’s Gina Ferguson recently won Ironman Western Australia and with it her third title at that distance. She went sub 9 hours twice in 2008 and we can certainly expect to see even more of her in the coming years.
A month after taking the runner-up spot at the Soma Half in Arizona, Durango resident Ben Hoffman battled a very tough field at the 2008 Ironman Arizona enroute to a 6th place finish there. Slowtwitch had a few words with him.
Hawaii resident John Flanagan posted some wicked fast swim times at the 2008 Ironman Hawaii and the 70.3 Clearwater Worlds with his 47:02 and 21:44 times respectively. He shared some of his thoughts with slowtwitch.
Normann Stadler thinks a better fit for his new Scott race bike will eliminate the problems that plagued his 2008 Kona effort. So this week he checked in with his old Tri Dubai race director Franko Vatterot in Boulder and got measured by Retul technology.
24-year old Aussie Tim Berkel recently captured the 2008 Ironman Western Australia title and earned the distinction to be one of the youngest male Ironman champions in the sport’s history. The man also known as “Slim” talked to Slowtwitch.com.
After not making the German Olympic team for Beijing, Andreas Raelert put his focus on longer distances. With wins at 70.3 Monaco and Ironman Arizona, plus a runner-up spot at 70.3 Worlds in Cleawater, this looks to be a pretty good move.
The lure of Ironman has caught Danish ITU speedster Rasmus Henning and in 2009 we will see him compete in a few selected longer races. The new Dextro Energy ITU World Championship series apparently did not manage to hold him.
Rahsaan Bahati has been on the controversial Rock Racing team for quite some time now and rocked to a US Pro Crit Champion title despite nursing injuries this year. He checked in with Slowtwitch.
Ky Hurst beat out Grant Hackett to get the Australian 2008 Olympic 10k open water swim spot. When he is not competing in open water swimming races, he is racing Ironmans, but not the M dot variety.
Wendy Mader from Northern Colorado, CO was the overall female age group finisher at the 2008 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. She shared some of her thoughts about the 2008 season and what is up next.
The 36-year-old Aussie sits down with Timothy Carlson and explains what he did for an encore after his perfect, five-for-five, $500,000, 2007 Life Time Fitness series triumph.