American Sarah True proved to be the class of the field to take her first win of the year at the IRONMAN Frankfurt European Championships (WPRO), pipping former champion and compatriot Skye Moench.
Having also just beat Moench in her last Ironman victory at IRONMAN Arizona, the battle of the day always looked to come down to the American pair, with True proving too strong on the run as she took the tape.
Poland’s Agnieszka Jerzyk finished third, having performed well across all three disciplines but was just missing that extra edge to take down Moench and True.
Swim – True and Clarke set the pace
Whilst True couldn’t quite claim a gun to tape victory, she showed her class early on in the race, as along with New Zealand’s Rebecca Clarke she managed to put over six minutes into the rest of the field in the water.
Coming out +6:25 down, Denmark’s Maja Stage Nielsen was next out of the water, as a chase group of five that also included Moench and Jerzyk came into transition together and began the hard task of closing the gap to Clarke and True.
Bike – Moench leads the charge
Out on the road, Clarke quickly dropped True, as the Kiwi opened up a gap of over two minutes to the American by the 47km mark. By that point, Stage Nielsen was within three minutes of True, along with Moench, Jerzyk and Nina Derron of Switzerland.
By the 100km mark, Clarke had started to fade a little, as True moved to within half a minute and the chase group caught the American. By 112km, Clarke was caught and passed, with a group of seven now at the front of the race led by Sweden’s Sara Svensk.
Over the latter stages of the bike, Moench was the only one who could stay with the Swede, as Svensk blew everyone else in the race away to come into transition alongside Moench with a three minute buffer back to True and Jerzyk, with the rest of the field over five minutes down.
Run – True dominates
Setting a blistering pace early on, True dropped Jerzyk out of transition and got to work trying to reel in the leaders, with Svensk quickly coming into her sights as Moench forged onwards alone.
True passed Svensk at the 7.7km mark but by then had failed to make any major inroads into Moench, who was running strong up front but started to falter slightly at around halfway.
After two laps of the run course, Moench still had +2:13 over True, but was really beginning to feel it, as True pulled back to within +0:15 with a lap left of running.
Making the pass at the 33km mark, True never looked back, running the fastest marathon in the race by some margin as she dipped under the three hour mark with a brilliant 2:57:23 clocking. Moench, who struggled badly in the last 10km, held strong for second as Jerzyk overhauled Svensk to take third.
IRONMAN Frankfurt European Championships Women’s Results – Sunday July 2 2023
- Sarah True (USA) – 8:54:53
- Skye Moench (USA) – 8:57:30
- Agnieszka Jerzyk (POL) – 3:03:56
- Laura Jansen (GER) – 9:08:11
- Maja Stage Nielsen (DEN) – 9:11:27
- Sara Svensk (SWE) – 9:12:33
- Leonie Konczalla (GER) – 9:16:17
- Rebecca Clarke (NZL) – 9:20:42
- Marlene de Boer (NED) – 9:23:51
- Katharina Grohmann (GER) – 9:24:09
Racing to keep up: Is social media making us train harder?
