It was a matter of waiting until the marathon would start before we would see Germany’s Anne Haug attack, but once the run part was there, she sprinted towards the win of Challenge Roth. Britain’s Fenella Langridge led for most of the race, but eventually saw Haug fly by, while she had to settle for second place (+8:59). The battle was mostly on between these two women, because the gap towards the third woman – Spain’s Judith Corachan, at the moment of writing – was more than 20 minutes.
Haug far behind after the swim
It came as no surprise that Haug would be a bit behind after the swim, but with a gap of more than seven minutes to the first woman – Langridge – there was still a lot of work to be done for Haug.
Langridge parties across the bike course
In the saddle, Langridge disappeared out of sight for most of her chasers. It didn’t even seem like much of an effort to her, because Langridge smiled and partied her way over the bike course; lifting her arms in the air and cheering for everyone at the spectator points. Haug’s face looked much more serious, but no wonder really, as she had to fight back to the front. After 70 km, Haug had managed to ride from tenth place after the swim to second position. Langridge was still quite far away, though. The gap between the first two ladies was still over eight minutes.
Text continues below picture
Haug attacks on the run
In the second half of the bike part, Haug had shrunk the gap between herself and Langridge with three minutes. That meant Haug racked her bikes five minutes behind Langridge in second position. Langridge may still have enjoyed an advantage to Haug; she was going to need every second of it during the run, because Haug is known to be an incredible runner.
Haug soon increased the pressure on Langridge once they were out of T2. After 10K, there were only three minutes left between the two. Soon after the half-marathon point, Langridge saw Haug fly by, and in the final kilometers, Haug was really off.
After a marathon of 2:46:04 hours, Haug broke the tape. Langridge crossed the finish line 8:59 minute later to take home silver.
