She was actually chasing all day, only to take over the lead in the last nine kilometers: it didn’t matter at all, because Marlene de Boer just took the win at Ironman Kalmar. The Dutch winner also recorded one of the fastest Dutch times ever.
The only blemish on De Boer’s victory may be the not very impressive field at Ironman Kalmar – there were actually no famous names at the start in Sweden – but thanks to her fast time that should not spoil the fun. During swimming and cycling De Boer was constantly in pursuit, initially solo, until she was joined fairly early on in the bike leg by German Henrike Güber. Together they rode towards the leading position in the race, although Güber proved just a bit too strong in the last kilometers of the bike leg and so the German returned to T2 with a fifty-second lead on De Boer.
What followed was an actually particularly exciting marathon, in which the two women did not give each other an inch. Güber’s lead increased to about one minute and remained hovering around that difference for about 25 kilometers. Both women ran at almost exactly the same pace, but in the closing stages it was De Boer who started to catch up.
It happened not that fast tough; the Dutchwoman approached second by second and after just over 32 kilometers she took over the lead in the race. From that moment on, her lead increased and she soloed towards victory. With a finishing time of 8:39:31 she was pretty fast and De Boer (among others after Els Visser’s 8:24:47 and Sarissa de Vries’ 8:32:04) recorded one of the fastest Dutch times ever. Denmark’s Katrine Graesboll Christensen – who also passed Güber in the closing stages – was second in 8:41:27. Güber finished third in 8:42:39.
In four weeks Marlene de Boer will race in her own country: then she will participate at the European Championships Long Distance at Challenge Almere-Amsterdam.
