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Slovenia’s Jaroslav Kovacic established a new course record, while the Netherland’s Yvonne Van Vlerken defended her title at the iron-distance Challenge Almere-Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
Kovacic finished in an amazing time of 7:55:43, breaking the long-standing course record of 7:57:46 that had held up since 1999 (by Jan van Marel). Germany’s Cameron Wurf finished second in 8:00:55, with Kristian Hogenhaug (DEN) rounding out the podium at 8:03:31. “I was focused on my own performance and knew that I could run well,” Kovacic said. “That was all I was thinking. I had to take the victory by running fast.”
Van Vlerken dominated the women’s race, crossing in 9:00:03. Els Visser finished second in 9:16:30, with Germany’s Lina-Kristin Schink finishing third at 9:17:46.
“I am so happy,” Van Vlerken said. “People always expect you to win, to perform well, but you always have to make it happen. I am very happy because of course it gets more and more difficult with all those young girls. It’s great that I was able to manage such a strong race.”