Wismar. Cornelius Wermann isn’t just good at medicine: the internist at the Sana Hanse Clinic in Wismar won the German Triathlon Championships for doctors and pharmacists in Leipzig on July 24th. The 46-year-old needed two hours and three minutes for the Olympic distance of 1.5 kilometers swimming, 40 kilometers cycling and ten kilometers running.
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“It’s my first victory after being second and third,” says the senior physician. And it is a good feeling to have left much younger colleagues and medical students behind. That’s why he’s happy about the championship title, which he has worked hard for through regular training. “But my main focus is on the Ironman,” explains the athletic physician. The distances of 3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42.195 km running, i.e. a marathon, are considerably longer.
Paused for two years after Ironman in Hawaii
Exactly 14 days before the Leipzig Triathlon, Cornelius Wermann contested his 20th Ironman in Switzerland and thus bought the ticket for the World Championships in Hawaii. The most traditional race on the scene, the oldest long-distance triathlon, will take place there again in October after a two-year break due to the pandemic.
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Triathlete Cornelius Wermann – on the 3.8 kilometer swim – qualified for the Ironman in Switzerland for the World Championships in Hawaii.
© Those: sportograf
Cornelius Wermann completed it seven years ago. This fulfilled a lifelong dream for the native of Halle, who has been living in Mecklenburg with his family since 2001. In 2002 he completed his first Ironman. It was 16 by Hawaii. Due to cardiac arrhythmia, which was diagnosed six months before the World Cup, it was to be his last competition, the end of his career as a triathlete.
“For two years I managed not to train,” he says now. “But it didn’t do me any good. In my early 40s, my back and legs hurt because I stand a lot every day at my job. I just didn’t feel good anymore.” The gastroenterologist (gastrointestinal specialist) was examined by a cardiologist. He found that the cardiac arrhythmias had disappeared.
His wife Christiane is also a triathlete
There was another reason for Cornelius Wermann to start triathlon again. “My wife also did this sport and started training consistently after our two daughters left home.” It increasingly bothered him not being able to keep up with her in running and cycling. “It took a few years for me to regain my level of performance. Actually, my wife Christiane is the reason why everything started all over again.” The jewelry designer liked it so much as a spectator in Hawaii in 2015 that at some point she decided to start at the Ironman.
In the beginning, the spouses were still able to train together, “but now I’m too fast for my wife again.” Cornelius Wermann, who has lived in Schwerin for several years, has been cycling to Wismar almost every day to work. Because the road cycle path leads through villages and has to be shared with pedestrians here, it often changes to the road. This regularly gets him dissatisfied with drivers. “At up to 35 kilometers per hour, I’m too fast for the footpath and too slow for the road,” he says. He needs about an hour for the 32-kilometer commute to Wismar. In total, he cycles up to 2000 kilometers a month.
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The Wermann couple bought Hawaii tickets
However, it is difficult to train mountain driving in Mecklenburg. “On the route from Ventschow to Rubow there is a two-kilometer climb that we ride up several times to simulate the mountains,” says Wermann about the bike training session with his wife. Because in Hawaii it goes up to 1600 meters. They practice swimming three to four times a week in the Schwerin lakes and in winter in the hall on the Dreesch. “There are two islands in the Pinnower See – if we swim around them, it’s exactly 3.8 kilometers like in the Ironman.” In addition, there is running training up to three times a week. “Now I’m training as much as before my heart history,” says the triathlete.
Still, it’s not that easy to qualify for the World Championships in Hawaii. The organizer allows only 2300 starters. The reason: only 2,300 bicycles fit on the pier at the port. Wermann says there are 20 to 30 Ironmans a year where you can qualify. At each competition there are only a few starting places per age group. There were ten in his age group at the Ironman in Switzerland, where he qualified on July 10th. A week earlier, his wife Christiane had made it to the Ironman in Austria. The couple will complete the premier class on the Pacific island in the fall – she on October 6th, he two days later. Because of the canceled competitions during the pandemic and the backlog of qualified triathletes, there are two rounds for the first time.
“Triathlon is a bit of my life”
In 2015, Cornelius Wermann had to take the Ironman slowly due to illness and was able to enjoy the competition, as he says. This time he wants to go full speed and stay under ten hours. “That’s the magic limit and my goal,” explains the triathlete. “I made it last year in Austria. But it’s difficult in Hawaii.” On the one hand because of the altitude and on the other hand because of the wind, he says. In addition, it is 40 degrees Celsius and more at lunchtime. Then, after around six hours, the marathon begins. The athletes run it on the highway in the blazing sun.
What torture! Cornelius Wermann waves it off. “It’s not that much torture. It’s fun, swimming, cycling and even up to the half marathon,” he explains with a smile. “Only the last 20 kilometers seem endless, every step is very difficult. But then there is anticipation of the finish and it is an incredible feeling of happiness when you reach the finish line,” he says. “I’ve been doing this sport since 1998, triathlon is a bit of my life.”