It was Dan Altermans (ISR) who got to break the tape at today’s Israman 226. After 9:52:28 hours, he was first to cross the finish line. He outran, among others, Israel’s Dan Kony Ovchinikov (+6:51) and Israel’s Amit Shaked (+11:27), who respectively finished second and third.
With a swim time of 52:08 Altermans enjoyed a 1:46-minute advantage after the first discipline. Also then, it was Kony Ovchinikov who was in the chase. For the 180K bike part, which is pretty rough due to a hard climb, Altermans needed 5:44:56 hours. That was quite a bit more than some of his opponents, and thus he lost his leading role and had to set things straight on the run. Thanks to a strong marathon, it didn’t take long before Altermans was back in front. Clocking a 3:09:42 hour marathon, he managed to take the win in 9:52:28 hours.
The women’s race had only one participant. That was Israel’s Irena Mazin.
Middle Distance
The Middle Distance was won by Israel’s Roee Zoaerts, who actually crashed with just 100 meters to go and lost his shoe because of it (see video below). Without one of his shoes, he still sprinted to the finish to take a big win. That sprint wasn’t even necessary because Zoaerts had an advantage of over six minutes to the second man: Udi Alhanaty (ISR). Emil Shakhkeldin (ISR) completed the podium by taking third (+12:57).
Antonina Reznikov (ISR) was the fastest woman on the Middle Distance. With a finish time of 5:14:43 hours, she was well ahead of Israel’s Hadas Mazar (+17:16) and Israel’s Ronnie Zawlik (+36:52), who took second and third. Also in the women’s race, the entire podium was Israeli.
Zoaert’s crash right before the finish:
