REPLAY: IRONMAN Italy Emilia-Romagna – 24 hours later than planned

This is a preview feature – you can read how the race panned out, with the race won by Germany’s Svenja Thoes in our race report.

[UPDATE – On Friday afternoon, due to severe weather in the area and an ‘Orange’ weather warning, the full distance IRONMAN Italy Emilia-Romagna scheduled for Saturday was delayed 24 hours until Sunday].

The fifth edition of IRONMAN Italy Emilia-Romagna sees a strong professional women’s field tackling the full distance event on Saturday, 17 September.

After three years without a professional field at the event, this year’s race has slots up for grabs at the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN World Championships in Kailua Kona, Hawai’i.

Start time and how to watch live

The 2022 IRONMAN Italy Emilia-Romagna women’s professional field started at a revised 0715 local time on Sunday, September 178h which corresponded to 0615 in the UK, 0115 Eastern.

Live coverage of IRONMAN Italy Emilia-Romagna will be broadcast via IRONMAN Now on Facebook Watch, YouTube and Twitch. For viewers in the UK, the coverage is available below via an embedded video.

As always, the ever reliable IRONMAN Tracker is the perfect data addition to support your viewing. If you haven’t got it on your phone already, where have you been?!

PRO Women

One of the big questions for the weekend is how Swiss athlete Julie Derron will get on in her first ever IRONMAN distance event. Whilst a newcomer to IRONMAN, Derron is the top seeded athlete ahead of the weekend and has enjoyed a great build-up to the race, stating that “I’ve been training well during the summer in St. Moritz and feel fit to race IRONMAN Italy Emilia-Romagna”.

Speaking about her future plans, Derron said “IRONMAN Italy will be my first full-distance IRONMAN race. Therefore, the main goal will be to get over the distance and gain experience racing IRONMAN. After this weekend, I will mainly focus on the Olympic distance races and try to qualify for the Paris Olympics in 2024.” 

Derron recently won the tough Gerardmer XL Triathlon in France by a significant margin for a second year, and was also fifth at the PTO Canadian Open. She’s a quality athlete.

Also set to be back in IRONMAN action is Svenja Thoes (GER). Winner of IRONMAN France and second at the Alpe d’Huez Long Course, she was first across the line recently at IRONMAN Ireland, but then issued with a post-race disqualification for outside assistance.

Alongside Derron will be compatriot Joanna Ryter, who finished third at IRONMAN Texas earlier on this year. The Swiss athlete was also second at IRONMAN Brazil in May following her 17th place performance at the IRONMAN World Championships in St George. Ryter finished fifth here in 2019, just a couple of minute ahead of Katharina Grohmann (GER), who also races again.

Another podium challenger could be Brit Chantal Sainter. Sainter was fifth earlier in the year at IRONMAN Hamburg before claiming an impressive third place last month at IRONMAN Ireland in Cork.

Fellow Brit, Tara Grosvenor, was fifth in Ireland – with the fastest run split – with arguably her best Pro performance yet. That will hopefully add confidence to her prospects in Cervia.

You can click here for the full start list

Recent IRONMAN Italy Emilia-Romagna Pro Women winners

• 2019 – Carolin Lehrieder (GER)
• 2018 – Daniela Saemmler (GER)
• 2017 – Lucy Gossage (GBR)

Prize Money: What’s up for grabs?

The prize purse on offer this weekend is $50,000 – and with this race being a Pro race for women only, that means that the winner will collect $15,000 for their efforts.

In addition to money, there will be one qualifying slot for the 2023 IRONMAN World Championship – more than a year in advance of the event.

The total funds will be paid ten-deep, as follows:

1. $15,000
2. $9,000
3. $7,000
4. $5,000
5. $4,000
6. $3,000
7. $2,500
8. $2,000
9. $1,500
10. $1,000

Of course, thanks to the formation of the Professional Triathletes Organisation, financial rewards from performance are not solely from on-the-day performances.

The PTO World Rankings will see a total of $2million awarded at the end of 2022, based up on the final standings in those points tables. The rewards there can be substantial, with a move up or down the rankings system potentially earning you more than any individual event.