Triathlon
Cheers, tears and collapse at the German Hawaii double podium
Anne Haug (l) came second behind Lucy Charles-Barclay (M.). Laura Philipp came in third place. photo
© Christian Petersen/Getty Images for IRONMAN/dpa
Triathlete Anne Haug completes the medal set as vice world champion. Laura Philipp comes third in Hawaii and collapses. The Ironman World Championships brings a lot of drama again. The eternal second cheers.
Vice world champion Anne Haug was beaming from ear to ear and was already thinking about dinner that evening. Laura Philipp, however, collapsed and had to postpone her party.
In the thrilling world championship race in the scorching heat of the Big Island, the podium debutant in particular felt the full rigor of the Ironman in Hawaii. After a highly emotional finish in the women’s race alone, the 36-year-old professional triathlete from Heidelberg initially cried in the arms of her coach and husband Philipp Seipp, and later suffered a collapse.
“Unfortunately, I ended up in the medical tent two hours after crossing the finish line,” explained Philipp via Instagram. But she is slowly feeling better again and will celebrate the next day.
Marathon course record
She and Haug had achieved great things before. Haug ran up to second place with a course record in the marathon and Philipp completed the first black-red-gold double podium for women in Hawaii in third place. “This is a mega German result,” emphasized Haug. Only one person could not be beaten that day in the place most sought after by tourists and triathletes: Lucy Charles-Barclay. The 30-year-old Brit ended her winning spell after four second places over the 3.86 kilometer swim, 180.2 kilometer cycle and 42.2 kilometer run.
Escorted by three men in Hawaiian shorts and holding torches, she crossed the finish line in Kailua-Kona as the triumphant first in the premiere of the all-women’s World Championship race. Unlike four years ago, when Haug caught up with her while running, Charles-Barclay made it this time and was also able to look forward to the prize money of 125,000 US dollars; Haug was left with 65,000 and Philipp 45,000.
“I looked over my shoulder on Ali’i Drive and thought, Anne is coming,” Charles-Barclay said afterwards. Haug only crossed the finish line three minutes behind, but she had caught up nine minutes in the marathon and needed 2:48:23 hours for the final section – no woman in Hawaii has ever been faster.
Start-finish winner
This also applied to Charles-Barclay’s overall time, which took 8:24:31 hours for her start-to-finish victory. “Speechless,” wrote her trainer Dan Lorang, who is also Haug’s coach, on Instagram. After a stress fracture in his hip last year, Charles-Barclay didn’t let a stress fracture in his foot in the first half of the year stop him this season. The World Cup was her first race of 2023 over the full distance. And what a thing.
“Lucy was unbeatable,” emphasized Haug, who was no less happy for her part: “I couldn’t have done anything better. And my medal set is now complete.” In addition to the triumph in 2019, she took third place three times and the now 40-year-old was on the podium at all five of the past world championships.
While the race initially went optimally for Haug, Philipp was unable to implement her plan as hoped after the traditional cannon shot to start the race at 6:25 a.m. local time. She only really learned to swim when she was 24, and she has no chance against a former Olympic candidate like Charles-Barclay. But the fact that she had to let go even further and climb out of the 24-degree Pacific, which was quite gentle in terms of waves, more than seven minutes behind was a burden for cycling.
Haug was a good four minutes behind the leaders, but stayed in a group with extremely strong cyclists. But Philipp, who had finished fourth a year ago after a time penalty, angry and disappointed like she did in 2019, got close and even overtook Haug. In third place, she ran over ten minutes after Charles-Barclay, also behind the American Hawaiian and Ironman debutant Taylor Knibb. She had qualified by winning the World Cup title over half the distance.
Fourth place was threatening again
“Running was a bit of a surprise bag for me,” Philipp told ARD. She then had to let Haug, who had rushed onto the track more than twelve minutes after the lead, go again; fourth place was once again in danger. She saw that Knibb, who had now also been passed by Haug, was no longer doing so well and thought to herself: “Even though I’m just crawling, I can somehow creep up.”
She made it a few kilometers from the finish, and when she arrived after a long and brutally hard day of work in temperatures over 30 degrees and around 70 percent humidity, the emotions burst out of her. Philipp formed a heart with his hands for her husband and trainer, both hugged each other tightly. “I was very emotional. I had to really, really, really fight.”