Frankfurt: How to watch the IRONMAN European Championship LIVE

Watch three German legends showdown in the heat of Frankfurt, LIVE

Your one-stop guide to watching IRONMAN European Championship 2019

KEY FACTS (The quick version…)

DATE: Sunday 30th June 2019
RACE START TIME: Pro start 6:25 a.m. (Men) / 6:30 a.m. (Women) local time.
UK = 5:25 a.m. / 5:30 a.m.
WATCH: online via www.facebook.com/IRONMANnow and Facebook Watch

LIVE STREAM DUE TO START AT 6:15 a.m (local) / 5:15 a.m. (UK time)

THE LEGENDS:

The headlines for this race fall on three German athletes racing on home soil. Sebastian Kienle (2014), Jan Frodeno (2015, 2016) and Patrick Lange (2017, 2018) have between them won the last FIVE IRONMAN World Championship titles.

KAILUA KONA, HI - OCTOBER 13: Patrick Lange of Germany celebrates before he crosses the finish line and sets a course record of 7:52:39 to win the IRONMAN World Championships brought to you by Amazon on October 13, 2018 in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images for IRONMAN) — Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images for IRONMAN

The last five victories in Frankfurt have also seen the European Championship in the hands of Kienle three times (2014, 2016, 2017) and Frodeno twice (2015 and 2018).

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, GERMANY - JULY 09: Sebastian Kienle of Germany celebrates after winning the Ironman European Championships on July 9, 2017 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Photo by Joern Pollex/Getty Images for Ironman) — Photo by Joern Pollex/Getty Images for Ironman

Current weather forecasts suggest that the local temperatures in Frankfurt could reach around 37°c on the run course on Sunday afternoon. This race really will be ‘hot’ in all respects.

For Age-Group athletes, the race offers 80 qualifying slots of the 2019 IRONMAN World Championship AND 100 slots for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship later on this year in Nice. The race takes place on the same day as IRONMAN France in Nice. While the race in France has been reduced in distance due to the conditions, but all signs are that Frankfurt will go ahead as planned – and almost certainly be a non-wetsuit swim for all.

BRITISH PRO INTEREST

Joe Skipper, Sam Proctor and Kimberley Morrison all raced at the IRONMAN North American Championship race in May this season, finishing 4th, 8th and 5th respectively. They are back for more Regional Championship racing action on Sunday. Morrison was just 30 seconds away from a Kona slot in The Woodlands, can luck be on her side this weekend? She will be joined by iron-distance debutant, Sarah Lewis.

DATA & TRACKING:

CHAT: IRONMAN Live Twitter via https://twitter.com/IRONMANLive
HASHTAG: #IMEUChamps
IRONMAN TRACKER APP: Download via the App Store (HERE) or Google Play (HERE)
ONLINE TRACKING / COVERAGE: http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/detail.aspx?race=germany&y=2019

FACEBOOK WATCH

Depending on your equipment, you can watch the IRONMAN ‘Facebook’ broadcasts easily on your TV – potentially without the need for a computer / tablet.

If you have a Samsung Smart TV for example (as I do) and a good internet connection, then you can download the Facebook Watch TV App and watch in full widescreen. I’ve used this many times and, for the vast majority of the time, it has worked fantastically.

For more details on compatible devices and TVs and/or how to stream, then THIS ARTICLE is a great place to start ti understand what to do.

Two parts to the broadcast?

Yes, one (slightly…) annoying parts of the Facebook streaming process, is that because of restrictions on live video length, you will have switch from ‘Part One’ to ‘Part Two’ during the day. This applies whether you are watching on your computer / laptop / tablet through the Facebook page, or directly on your TV through Facebook Watch.