Anne Haug hopes to take inspiration from a visit to Challenge Roth into her first full-distance race since her frustrating early exit from last year’s IRONMAN World Championship in Nice.

The 2019 World Champion was one of the favourites on the Cote d’Azur last September but a shredded tyre soon after going out of transition at the start of the bike leg ended her race.

There have been setbacks and injuries this season too for the 42-year-old but she’s hoping to put those behind her at IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz on Sunday.

She’ll face a small but select field there including Marjolaine Pierre, who won a second World Triathlon Long Distance title recently, and Olympic silver medallist Julie Derron.

Derron has already made a huge impact at middle-distance and beat reigning 70.3 World Champion Taylor Knibb at T100 San Francisco in May. She is stepping up to an IRONMAN for the first time in three years.

‘Happy to be healthy again’

Haug meanwhile was at Challenge Roth on Sunday, where 12 months previously she set what remains the fastest-ever full-distance time by a woman of 8:02:38.

She did various interviews and appearances – and also pitched in with some volunteer roles for the age-group athletes.

Chatting to Belinda Granger and Sebi Kienle on the English-language broadcast, the German superstar said: “It really gives me energy for next week and I hope that I can produce a good performance.

“I’m just happy to be healthy again.

“I’ve been back running for the last four weeks and my goal is to pull out a solid race to do my Hawaii validation and then all of my focus will be Hawaii.”

Raising the bar

Asked by Kienle whether it could be her last appearance at Kona she was quick to stress she has no intention of retiring just yet.

She explained: “I think I’m still improving numbers wise but I want to feel the work I put in reflects my performance.”

She’s also been delighted to see the constant raising of the bar in women’s long-distance triathlon, meaning that there’s been plenty of talk about when – not if – the sub-eight-hour mark will be broken.

On that, she added: “For sure it’s possible but you can’t plan it like that. It has to be the absolute perfect day and all pieces of the puzzle have to come together.

“But having so many people capable of breaking it definitely increases the possibility.

“Someone has to do the first step and then others follow. The whole level of the sport increases.”