From the start he was on fire: Germany’s Jan Stratmann just swam, biked and ran to a strong win at Ironman 70.3 Zell am See, finishing just under four hours (3:59:42). Local hero Lukas Hollaus – a Tokyo Olympic – took second place (+5:26) and the third place was for Austria’s Georg Enzenberger (+7:59)
After the swim, Stratmann already enjoyed a lead of more than one minute on Hollaus, but that wasn’t enough for him, because once in the saddle he really started to hit the gas. On the climb and even more so on the downhill, he took off. After biking 2:11 hours over 90 km, Stratmann racked his bike in T2 with an advantage of 5:30 minute to second place: Austria’s Paul Ruttman. Extra impressive that Stratmann had such an advantage, as he crashed after about 55 km of cycling. Hollaus entered the transition area in fourth place (+8:53).
Running 1:18:24 Stratmann wasn’t one of the fastest man on this final discipline, but with a buffer of more than five minutes, his win was pretty much safe. Hollaus ran much faster, clocking 1:14:18, but it wasn’t enough to pass Stratmann. With a beautiful sub-four finish time – 3:59:42 hour – Stratmann claimed the gold. Hollaus ran to second place, and Enzenberger earned his third spot thanks to a 1:17:34-hour half-marathon.
