Germany’s Laura Philipp retained her IRONMAN European Championship title on Sunday at IRONMAN Hamburg and almost set the fastest ever Ironman time by a woman in the process.
Laura produced another massive story on an amazing day for the sport by missing Chrissie Wellington’s long-standing mark by just SEVEN seconds. Chrissie remember clocked 8:18:13 in Roth in 2011 – Laura here broke the tape in 8:18:20. Amazing stuff.
Pre-race, we were wondering if she would be ready to start. After this…I think we can safely say she’s back.
The swim – quartet lead
The opening 3.8km swim saw four athletes exit the water together in Hamburg. On the timing mat at least, IRONMAN debutant Chelsea Sodaro was leading (54:38), but with odds-on favourite, Philipp (GER) Manon Genet (FRA), and Chantal Sainter (GBR) following immediately behind. Positions between them were meaningless.
That quartet had a four-minute advantage over Australia’s Renee Kiley (second last year) and Karina Gosvig (DEN).
Bike – Laura takes control
Seeing Laura Philipp taking control on the bike – on home soil – isn’t a surprise. She’s a class act after all. A month after COVID however there were still questions to answer, and having a rival of Sodaro’s pedigree is hardly a comfortable situation.
In her first full-distance start, Sodaro rolled into T2 after a 4:35:09 bike split, almost bang on four minutes down on the home favourite. She reduced that by another 20 seconds in transition too.
The race for the win looked like it would be between those two athletes alone, with Genet almost 17 minutes back from the German starting the run, Sainter arriving just two minutes later and still in podium contention.
Run – Oh so close to the record
Philipp gained further time through the run, but Sodaro was hardly fading. Despite Laura clocking a sub 1:21 first half, she only added a further three minutes with Chelsea more than holding her own with a first half under 1:24. Fast running from the leading two.
Fast times. Very fast times. Any doubts that Philipp may not be recovered from COVID extinguished with stunning 2:45:39 marathon. The finish time? On a day when Sub7Sub8 was taking the headlines, you add all that up and get 8:18:20.
That’s fast. That’s incredibly fast. So fast that it was only seven seconds short of Chrissie’s mark in 2011.
Behind, a three-hour marathon from Chelsea Sodaro saw her iron-distance debut finish in 8:36:42 for second (Kona secured), with Manon Genet rounding out the podium in 8:52:02.
IRONMAN Hamburg 2022 Results
PRO Women – IRONMAN European Championship
(No PRO Men’s race in Hamburg)
Sunday June 5, 2022 – 3.8km / 180km / 42.2km
- 1. Laura Philipp (GER) – 8:18:20
- 2. Chelsea Sodaro (USA) – 8:36:42
- 3. Manon Genet (FRA) – 8:52:02
- 4. Heini Hartikainen (FIN) – 8:56:31
- 5. Chantal Sainter (GBR) – 9:01:50
- 6. Verena Walter (GER) – 9:33:09
- 7. Jenny Nae (SWE) – 9:34:12
- 8. Janien Lubben (NED) – 9:41:11
- 9. Karina Gosvig (DEN) – 9:45:50
- 10. Annika Timm (GER) – 10:21:26
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