On the long journey home from Hawaii via San Francisco to Germany, Anne Haug had another reason to be happy.
After a strenuous triathlon season, the newly crowned Ironman vice world champion leads the Professional Triathletes Organization world rankings with the thrilling conclusion last Saturday in Kailua-Kona.
“This isn’t just a treat for me, it’s something that means very, very much to me,” Haug told the “German Press Agency”: “This makes you the best on any longer route.”
And the fact that Haug managed to do this for the second time in a row at the end of a season makes the 40-year-old from Bayreuth almost prouder than her second place at the World Championships over the 3.86 kilometers of swimming and 180.2 kilometers of cycling and 26.2-mile runs in Hawaii. “It just shows that you are consistent all year round and not just in one race.”
Especially since races from different series are included in the ranking. The average of an athlete’s three best results over a period of 52 weeks is decisive for the ranking in the PTO ranking.
For Haug, this included second place in Hawaii as well as victory in the PTO race in Ibiza and second place in the PTO race in Singapore – over 2 kilometers of swimming, 80 kilometers of cycling and 18 kilometers of running. Hawaii winner Lucy Charles-Barclay is in fourth place in the overall PTO ranking ahead of Laura Philipp, who came third on the podium at the Ironman World Championships for the first time.
Haug doesn’t think about when she might have done something differently during the race at the Ironman World Championship in order to catch Charles-Barclay’s triumph in the marathon, as she did in 2019. “I couldn’t have run a step faster.” She had already set a course record for running in 2:48:23 hours. “The head is very happy,” affirmed Haug: “But the legs are suffering a lot. They feel like concrete blocks.”