IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See 2021: Laura Philipp different class

Chief Correspondent

Sunday’s IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See provided another further confirmation that Germany’s Laura Philipp is back to form and fitness. For that, the top tier of the sport can be very grateful.

PRO Women – Philipp dominates

Having only raced once in 2020 – third at the PTO Championship, Challenge Daytona – any doubts about Laura’s ability to challenge for the absolute top spot in the sport were further removed by another domination in Austria. At IRONMAN Finland just two weeks ago, Philipp simply ran away with the race from T2.

Despite having only learned to swim as an adult, the talented German gave up only 15 seconds in the water to Italy’s Margie Santimaria. She didn’t even have to wait until the bike to move into the lead, as a swift transition giving her a clear road, and she never looked back. Some 90km later she would start the run almost six minutes ahead of Anne Reischmann (GER), and it was already game over.

Her winning margin at the line was 10 minutes. Reischmann took second place to continue a strong run of form, her third podium in three races which includes top spot at IRONMAN 70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne.

PRO Men – Stratmann all the way

Germany’s Jan Stratmann was first out of the water by over a minute, before destroying the field on the bike. His 2:11:50 bike split was the quickest of the day by a massive margin of over seven minutes.

With the win in the bag, a 1:18:24 run brought him home in under four hours and more than five minutes ahead of Lukas Hollaus, who had recently represented Austria at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Stratmann recently took bronze in that close race at the IRONMAN 70.3 European Championship, and he seems set to become one one of the next generation of stars alongside the likes of Goodwin, Bakkegard, Ditlev, Long, Von Berg, Iden and others. The future is indeed bright.