Double Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington, arguably the current biggest name in the sport of triathlon, has revealed to Tri247 that her 2009 schedule includes Quelle Challenge Roth (www.challenge-roth.com) in Germany, on Sunday 12th July 2009.

Roth is certainly one of the premier iron-distance races on the annual calendar. Formerly known as 'Ironman Europe', pre-2001, the Roth organisers have not only survived, but prospered outside of the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) umbrella, re-positioning themselves under the 'Challenge' brand, to such success that Challenge has developed into its own series of full and half iron-distance events, with races in Germany, France, New Zealand and now Spain, scheduled for 2009.

Roth's success can probably be best summed up in that it takes place just one week apart from the almost universally applauded, and massively successful Ironman European Championships in Frankfurt (www.ironman.de) - which Chrissie won in 2008 - and yet both events prosper, and continue to attract full fields including the very best athletes in the sport. Germany is truly fortunate to have two incredible iron races on its calendar.

Of course, your Editor is feeling a little pleased with himself, as he predicted this would happen over six months ago... Don't believe him? Well, check out our weekly newsletter issued on Monday 1st September 2008, after yet another dominating display from Chrissie at the ITU World Long Distance Championships:

"...it's interesting to see that one of the athletes the 'Chrissinator' left trailing in her wake yesterday was... Yvonne Van Vlerken! Which then naturally leads to the question: "how fast can Chrissie go in an Ironman"? So, I'm going to put my prediction hat on now, 10-months in advance, and predict that Chrissie will race in either Roth or Austria next summer. I would be amazed if the respective race directors haven't already been in lengthy discussions with her management team to sign her up, and I would certainly love to see it. And, given the welcome and joy she experienced in Frankfurt, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Chrissie lining up again in Germany next year, but this time in Roth... We'll see!"

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The references to times in the Newsletter of course refer to the other aspect of Roth's fame - it is well known as a fast course, quite possibly the very fastest on the circuit. The current Ironman world record of 7:50:27 was set by Luc Van Lierde (BEL) in 1997 (under the Ironman Europe banner), while the iron-distance female record (as Challenge Roth...) was set last year by Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) at 8:45:48. With Chrissie having so comprehensively beaten Van Vlerken in both Almere and Hawaii last year, the natural thought of course is, just how fast could she go...?!

However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Chrissie's first major race of the year is coming up in a month's time at the Country Energy Ironman Australia, where she takes on, amongst others, her predecessor as Ironman World Champion, Michellie Jones. Michellie is undoubtedly one of the greatest female triathletes ever, with EIGHT ITU World Championship medals (two gold / two silver / four bronze), plus an Olympic Silver medal - which arguably ought to have been a gold given subsequent events involving Brigitte McMahon - in a career now approaching almost two decades at the top. As Chrissie told us about Roth "...before all the talk of WRs let me get IM Australia over and done with first ...i am lining up against Michellie so should be an interesting battle of the Champs!"