World champion Laura Philipp defeated the British Katrina Matthews in Hamburg in the duel of the two fastest Ironman women. The Heidelberg woman secured EM gold and the next big title on Sunday.
When the 38-year-old placed on the home straight on the Jungfernstieg at 38:04 p.m. in a delicious rain, roaring cheers opened. It was the deserved reward for an outstanding performance in weather conditions that were extreme in the final phase of the Ironman. The start had to be relocated by 45 minutes.
After 3.8 km swimming, 180 km on the bike and the final marathon run (42.195 km), Philipp was two minutes ahead of Matthews. By sharpening the pace in the last quarter of the marathon, the world champion caught up and decided to decide the duel.
Philipp repeated in the top time of 8:03:13 hours – the second best time on the long distance after Anne Haug 2024 in Roth (8:02:38) – Matthews in the Hanseatic city won the silver medal in 8:05:13 hours after the World Cup in Nice 2024. Norwegian Solveig Natvik Lövseth secured bronze in 8:12:28 hours.
“I’m just super stump”
“It was absolutely crazy. We almost glued the whole race together. It was so scarce and for a long time it looked like Kat was doing the race,” said Philipp. The cheering of the fans on the route drove them to “knock everything out on the last of three rounds. I really finished, but great, great.”
Philipp picks up in the transition zone for 22 seconds
On the 178 km long bike route, Matthews, Philipp and Lövseth had long and close together. About ten kilometers before the end of the second sub -discipline, the British continuously settled from her competitors. With a lead of 54 seconds to Heidelbergin, Matthews hung up her bike on the Jungfernstieg.
In the transition zone, however, the Germans did a good 22 seconds to the World Cup runner, so that it made a gap of only 32 seconds to the 42.195 km. Lövseth had a gap of 1:33 minutes on Matthews before the final discipline.
Philipp flies on the Marathon route up to
Already after the first seven kilometers of the running route, everything indicated that it would amount to the expected duel for EM gold between Matthews and Philipp. Lövseth’s gap to the leading British had already increased to 2:27 minutes. In contrast, the German was only 26 seconds behind Matthews at the time.
17 km before the finish line, however, it was 47 seconds behind, and the repetition of the EM triumph from 2022 seemed at risk. But then the hour of the world champion, who now caught up. Twelve kilometers before the finish, it was only 38 seconds behind, two kilometers later 21.
Exclusion signs for the World Cup in October
Philipp flew up and irresistibly passed her opponent eight kilometers before the finish line. Soon afterwards, she ripped her arms overjoyed on the Jungfernstieg in the rain – never before had a woman completed a marathon with an Ironman faster.
With the catch -up and victory, Philipp also set an example with regard to the World Cup in Hawaii (October 11) – the season goal of the two exceptional athletes, who also ran far before the competition in Hamburg. “It is still very early, but a big drive that I take with me to continue building myself towards Kona,” said the world and European champion.
3,000 Hobby athletes and athletes there
In Hamburg, 3,000 hobby athletes had also jumped into the internal and outside altesters on Sunday morning. After an excursion on the bike to the four and marble in the southeast of Hamburg, the marathon went over four rounds on the banks of the Alster and through the city center to the destination on Jungfernstieg, which Philipp reached first.
This topic in the program:
01.06.2025 | 7:30 p.m.
