American triathlete Jackie Hering took a memorable victory at the IRONMAN European Championship in Hamburg, as the 39-year-old powered home to the win courtesy of a phenomenal 2:52:32 run split.
Racing over the full distance for the first time in nine years, Hering bested a quality field to take the tape, more than a decade on from her last IRONMAN win at Wisconsin in 2013.
The PTO World #22, who beat Maja Stage Nielsen of Denmark and German Daniela Bleymehl to the European title, now moves into second in the 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series standings.
Swim – Iemmolo and Langridge lead the way
French athlete Julie Iemmolo was the first athlete out of the water in Hamburg, with the 24-year-old leading out Great Britain’s Fenella Langridge in a time of 50:38.
Out next was a small group of five athletes, around three minutes down on the leading pair, which included pre-race favourite Kat Matthews, Nielsen, Hering, German Sabrina Roth and Italian Fabia Maramotti.
Further back, Dutch star Els Visser was in ninth, six minutes back from the front of the race, alongside home favourite Bleymehl, with the pair facing a mountain to climb to get back in contention on the bike and run.
Bike – Day of drama reaches its peak
On to the bike, it was Langridge who made the first move, dropping Iemmolo and powering into the lead. By 60km, Langridge had a gap of +1:10 over the Frenchwoman, as the drama started to unfold behind her.
Firstly, Matthews, who had come into the race vying for a second consecutive full distance win this season, was stopped in her tracks by a bottle cage malfunction, which saw her lose time to the front as she stopped to fix it.
Then, following a mistake that she took full accountability for on her Instagram post-race, the British pro was disqualified just over halfway into the bike leg, after overtaking in a “no passing zone” and being shown a red card by the officials.
With Matthews out of the race, Visser was the next to suffer from some bad luck, with the recent Singapore T100 third place finisher puncturing after moving up into second place on the bike. As a result, she started the run over ten minutes down.
Oblivious to the chaos behind her, Langridge kept her foot on the gas to enter T2 with a half a minute advantage over Bleymehl, who had ridden the fastest bike split of the day to get back to the front of the race.
Iemmolo, +1:44 down in third, was still in contention for the podium off the bike, and was joined by Nielsen and Hering, who had managed to stay out of trouble and ride their way up through the field.
Run – Hering breaks American record with phenomenal marathon
Running strong over the opening stage of the marathon, Langridge held her gap to Bleymehl over the first 10km lap, but was losing time to Nielsen and Hering, who had moved up into third and fourth.
Just four kilometres later, Hering had reeled in the Brit, as the American moved into the lead for the first time on race day. By the halfway mark, Hering was +0:20 up on Nielsen in second, with Bleymehl +1:48 down in third, just ahead of Langridge.
Consolidating her lead over the second half of the marathon, Hering romped home to victory, taking her first professional win since 2022 in a new American Ironman record of 8:19:14, beating the previous mark of 8:22:28 set by Skye Moench in 2023.
Taking the European title, Hering clinched one of the biggest wins of her career in style, after nine years away from full distance racing. In second, Nielsen secured the best result of her season so far, with Bleymehl rounding out the podium on home turf.
IRONMAN Hamburg – European Championship 2024
Sunday June 2, 2024 – 3.8km / 180km / 42.2km
PRO Women
- 1. Jackie Hering (USA) – 8:19:14 [53:32/4:25:48/2:52:32]
- 2. Maja Stage Nielsen (DEN) – 8:21:54 [53:26/4:25:40/255:45]
- 3. Daniela Bleymehl (GER) – 8:28:09 [ 56:48/4:20:47/3:03:24]
- 4. Fenella Langridge (GBR) – 8:29:36 [50:40/4:26:50/3:05:24]
- 5. Els Visser (NED) – 8:32:45 [56:30/4:32:18/2:57:08]
