1/7
Daniela Ryf has to settle for 8th place at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.
Brutal hardships for Daniela Ryf in Hawaii. The Solothurn native cannot defend her title and only finishes eighth. At the finish line, when the award ceremony is already over, Ryf is very disappointed and can’t hold back the tears.
The mood on the podium is completely different. When the Ironman World Championship returns to the Big Island after three years, there is a surprise winner in the women’s race. In her debut at the Ironman World Championship, Chelsea Sodaro (33) triumphed thanks to a strong marathon of 2:51:45 hours ahead of Briton Lucy Charles-Barclay and Germany’s Anne Haug, the 2019 winner.
It is the first American victory in women’s in more than two and a half decades. The four-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington (2007) from Great Britain was the last debutant in Hawaii to win.
Ryf not among the best in the marathon
Although Ryf is once again the first to reach the second transition zone, the continuation of the race is different than most of the past. In Ryf’s victories in Hawaii in the years 2015 to 2018, after a dominant performance on the bike, she was still able to complete a marathon in the area of the best running.
This is no longer the case this time. Ryf, who is also a five-time world champion over half the Ironman distance, does not achieve the dynamism and efficiency of her best days. Like in the same place in 2019, she has to fight her way through when she was classified 13th due to poor health.
Ryf takes the lead from Brit Lucy Charles-Barclay just under seven kilometers before the end of the bike course. And with the second best bike time in the history of women’s racing on Kona. The five-time Ironman World Champion tackles the run seven seconds ahead of last year’s 70.3 Ironman World Champion and multiple Ironman World Championship runner-up Charles-Barclay. But then the Ryf collapses.
The Englishwoman countered on the first kilometer and quickly distanced herself clearly from the Swiss. At kilometer 7, the subsequent winner Sodaro also overtakes the Swiss. And then other competitors. Ryf, the outstanding athlete of recent years, is passed.
Position 14 after the swim
Already in the first discipline, Daniela Ryf remained a little below her return. After the 3.86 km, she comes out of the water in 14th position, almost seven minutes behind outstanding swimmer Lucy Charles-Barclay.
In cycling, Ryf revs up at 100 kilometers. She overtakes several competitors and continuously closes the gap to the leading duo with Charles-Barclay and her compatriot Langridge. The race to catch up in cycling must have cost Ryf a lot of grains.
New Ironman World Champion Chelsea Sodaro was fourth at the 70.3 2019 Ironman World Championships in Nice, where Ryf triumphed. In Hawaii, Sodaro only contested the second Ironman of her career after Hamburg. There she took 2nd place at the beginning of June.
The men’s race with Jan van Berkel as the only Swiss hope will be held on Sunday night Swiss time. (SDA)