It’s been quite the week for sponsor announcements at the world’s biggest full-distance races. Challenge Roth, the largest full-distance race in the world, announced today that “hep – there is no planet b” has signed on as a presenting sponsor, while a few days ago Ironman announced that SuperSapiens would be the title sponsor of the Ironman World Championship and four other European Ironman events.
The new official title is “DATEV Challenge Roth powered by hep.” Hep is a German company that builds and operates solar parks around the world. The new company has signed a three-year deal and enhances Challenge Roth’s reputation for sustainability and waste avoidance.
Hep also sponsors German stars Sebastian Kienle, Laura Philipp and Maurice Clavel, along with Denmark’s Daniel Bækkegård, who is fresh off a win at Ironman 70.3 Dubai last month. It is hard to imagine that Kienle or Philipp will be able to participate in the rescheduled Challenge Roth race this year (Sept. 5) since they have both already qualified for Kona set for Oct. 9. One can imagine both will be on the line at some point over the next few years, though – Kienle won Challenge Roth in 2018, while Philipp’s fourth-place finish in her Kona debut in 2019 makes her one of Germany’s top long-distance competitors.
Kienle, Philipp and Hep Sports Team manager Ronnie Schildknecht were all involved in today’s announcement.
