IRONMAN Austria 2023 results: Petersen and Wilms win as Wurf books Nice slot

Mathias Petersen of Denmark took the win at IRONMAN Austria in the men’s race, whilst Lotte Wilms of the Netherlands was victorious in the women’s race, with both athletes cruising to victory.

In the men’s race, Cameron Wurf secured his Nice slot with a strong performance in second, as Austrian Georg Enzenberger rounded out the podium in third place.

On the women’s side, Hungarian Gabriele Maria Obmann was second ahead of German Laura Zimmerman finished in third place, as Wilms and Maria Obmann secured their slots to the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona.

Pro Men

In the men’s race, German Lukasz Wojt was way ahead of the field after the 3.8km swim, leading into transition more than three and a half minutes ahead of Petersen, as the Dane exited the water at +3:33 closely followed by a group of eight men, including Australian Cameron Wurf.

Cam Wurf T2 IRONMAN Lanzarote 2023 [Photo credit: James Mitchell / Club La Santa IRONMAN Lanzarote] — [Photo credit: James Mitchell / Club La Santa IRONMAN Lanzarote]

In that chase pack was also Kazakhstan’s Ivan Tutukin, Frenchman Dylan Magnien and German Gregor Schreiner, as the group looked almost certain to catch Wojt, who lost thirty seconds to the pack going through transition.

Out on the bike, Wurf broke away from the group early on to take the lead at the halfway mark, reeling in Wojt, who after spending almost three hours at the front of the race, was quickly dropped by the powerful Aussie on two wheels.

Wurf continued to put time into his opponents over the remainder of the bike course, entering transition +4:53 ahead of Petersen, who was followed closely into T2 by Wojt, Guilloux and Enzenberger, with that gap growing to over five minutes by the time they started the run.

Having run on par with everyone but Petersen through the first half of the marathon, Wurf looked poised to at least hold on to second, with it likely just being a matter of time before the Dane made his way to the front of the race, as he trailed Wurf by just under a minute at the 22km mark.

Making the pass with around 17km to go, Petersen looked assured of the win, with Wurf also sitting comfortably in second. Following a 2:45 marathon, Petersen broke the tape, with almost six minutes back to Wurf in second as the Aussie secured his Nice slot, ahead of Enzenberger.

IRONMAN Austria 2023 Pro Men podium — Photo by Jasmin Walter/Getty Images for IRONMAN

Pro Women

In the women’s race, Wilms led from gun to tape, as the Dutch athlete exited the water with a four minute lead over Fabia Maramotti of Italy and South African Jade Nicole Roberts, as Zimmerman and Obmann lost more than ten minutes in the water.

On to the bike, Zimmerman and Obmann made their way through the field, but failed to make any substantial headway into Wilms’ lead, as the PTO World #27 enjoyed a lead of just under ten minutes to the rest of the field coming into T2.

Holding strong on the run, Wilms took the win, as Hungarian Obmann secured second just ahead of Zimmerman in third, with the pair impressively running a sub-3 hour marathon having chased Wilms all day, to end up just over six minutes behind the winner.