PTO World #4 Anne Haug put together a brilliant performance at IRONMAN 70.3 Nice on Sunday, after the German was given a special entry to compete in the age-group race in the South of France.

Racing to gain some experience on the course ahead of the IRONMAN World Championship in September, Haug finished in a time of 4:38:44 and clocked an incredible half-marathon time of 1:13:48.

After a difficult start to the season, with health issues forcing her to miss the first three T100 Tour events in Miami, Singapore and San Francisco, the former IRONMAN World Champion now appears to be back on track.

“It was great preparation”

After winning IRONMAN Lanzarote in style last month, Haug was slated to start in San Francisco a fortnight ago but was a late withdrawal, missing her third T100 Tour race of the season.

Competing instead at IRONMAN 70.3 Nice, the 41-year-old demonstrated that there were no question marks surrounding her fitness, and explained in her post race interview why she had wanted to compete.

“It was a great preparation because it is always different to see what the course was like, because it is always so different in races compared to training.

“It was the best I could do to see the conditions, it was brutally hard but now I know what I need to do to prepare for the IM World Championship.”

“I’m very happy with my race”

Admitting that the bike course in particular was incredibly challenging, Haug thanked IRONMAN for allowing to race and said that she was excited to return in September.

“It was a really tough race. I started at the end of the front pack and I had to make my way through, maybe I should have started a little earlier but I thought there would be a lot of good swimmers.

“But on the bike it was brutal, there’s such a long descent and it was really hard to pace. I was really happy to get a sneak peek before the IRONMAN World Championship, so I can know how to race and I’m really grateful to IRONMAN for having me here.

“On the run I wanted to have a really strong run and I think I delivered, that was really important for me. It’s part of working towards the World Championship and it was a really good hit out and I’m very happy with my race.”