Ful-On Tri - Race Reports (Blogs)

Quelle Challenge Roth 2008

By James Deane on 25/07/2008 11:03

When I've answered 'Roth', more often than not the very next question is ‘What is that?’ Roth is a small town about 40km south of Nuremberg, in Germany, and the destination of Europe's first every Ironman event. Why the triathlon held there annually is not splashed all over the current Ironman sites relates to the fact that it’s no longer run under the Ironman brand. One of the first 2 Germans to race at IM Hawaii was Detlef Kuhnel in 1982, a Roth local. In 1984 he organised a short distance race in Roth and this graduated, in 1988, to the 1st Ironman Germany Race in Roth with the winner setting a world record time over the Ironman distance at the time. The race ran under the auspices of Ironman until 2001 when the organisers parted company with the Ironman brand. During that time the race saw some super fast finishes with Luc v Lierde setting (and still holding) the world record of 7:50.27.

Since 2002 the race has been run by the Challenge organisation with Quelle as the front line sponsor...

James Deane

UK half ironman 2008

By sehmis on 07/07/2008 21:35

15 Jun saw the much awaited UK 70.3 at Wimbleball. A fine cadre of FOT athletes (plus Sandy) tore themselves from the confines of the M25 and wended their merry ways down to Devon/Somerset to enjoy one of the hilliest middle distance races on the calendar (and also to witness, first hand, the outcome of another edition of the battle of the Creswards). The 6am mass standing start in the lake under fast rolling fog was a mixture of Arthurian legend and a Richard Attenborough crowd scene. Emerging first amongst FOT was Andy Bennett, then Ellen Pooley, followed rapidly by Stew Ward, Natalie Creswick Vicky Hawker, and then slightly less rapidly thereafter by PJ Thibault and others. The bike leg was a series of hills disguised as undulations, punctuated by bottlenecks, rain storms and a lot of hedgerows. It certainly suited those amongst us who have been giving the turbo trainer a good shoeing recently; And Natalie Creswick demonstrated, to those who needed such proof, that she

Sandy Sehmi