They were named top favorites beforehand, and rightly so: Simon Jorn Hansen and Merle Brunnée have just won the World Championship Powerman Alsdorf. Both athletes proved inimitable, although the differences at the finish were pretty small.
The World Championship Powerman was about 10 kilometers of running, 60 kilometers of biking and another 10 kilometers of running. Early in the race, Dane Simon Jorn Hansen, Slovak Ondrej Kubo and Belgian Jonathan Wayaffe took off with the three of them to take the lead in the race. Until T2, the three men also stayed out of the hands of the athletes behind them.
During the final ten kilometers of running, the three leaders eventually proved good for the podium as well, and no one proved able to close the gap to the front. Hansen clearly proved to have the fastest running legs, although the differences at the front remained quite small, so it actually remained exciting until the finish.
Hansen won the World Championship Powerman Alsdorf in a time of 2:21:18. Just 28 seconds later, Kubo came in second in 2:21:47, with Wayaffe taking bronze nine seconds behind.
Brunnée eventually won the women’s race in a time of 2:42:01. Britain’s Rachel Brown came dangerously close, finishing second in 2:42:55. Germany’s Madlen Kappeler finished third in 2:45:21, thus sealing the podium.
