Champions Crowned In Long Distance Duathlon

Eva Nystrom (SWE) collected her second consecutive Long Distance Duathlon World Championship Title in dominant fashion, besting the competition by an astonishing 14 minutes. In the men's race, Rob Woestenborghs (BEL) continued his strong duathlon season, claiming his first Long Distance championship after winning the shorter event in Cali earlier this year.

Women's Review

The women got off to a sleety start after storms that raged through the night settled down just in time for the race. The first two-lap, 10km run saw Switzerland's Petra Eggenschwiler lead a tight crop of women through the first lap. On the second turn around the course, Germany's Julia Viellehner had a 14-second advantage over Susanne Svendsen (DEN) and Eggenschwiler. But the first 10km did little to break up the women's field, with the top six women within 40 seconds of each other.

Early on the bike, Nystrom proved why she is the reigning world champ when she created a 40-second gap for herself in the first 20km. May Kerstens (NED) attempted to keep pace, followed by Eggenschwiler another 30 seconds down. Nystrom extended her lead throughout the first lap, which proved pivotal to her winning the title. By the end of the first 50km, she owned a 1:40 lead over Kerstens, who finished with bronze in the race last year.

From that point on there was no stopping Nystrom, as she continued to pummel the competition, opening up a whopping 10 minute gap by the end of the bike. Behind her, the USA's Ruth Brennan Morrey overtook both Eggenschwiler and Kerr to move into second.

Nystrom continued her dominance along the 30km run, as the lead she secured on the bike was far too great to overcome. She bulldozed through the two lap run and sailed to win in 7 hours,13 minutes, 8 seconds. While Nystrom was steady in her race for gold, the same cannot be said for the hunt for silver. Viellehner soared ahead on the first 15km and the battle for bronze heated between Morrey and Barbara Schwarz (SUI). Viellehner took second in 7:24:36. Morrey and Schwarz endured a sprint duel for bronze, but it was the American who took the final podium spot in 7:27:04.

Men's Review

In the men's race, Oliver Mott (GBR) took the initiative to set the rhythm when he ran ahead on the first lap of the run course. Eight men trailed him, including Woestenborghs, Yannick Cadalen, Anthony Leduey, Andreas Sutz, Soren Bystrup, and Andre Moser. But it was Woestenborghs who got to his bike first to begin the testing 150km course.

Cadalen then took the helm in the first 20 bike kilometers, followed by Woestenborghs, Sutz, Bystrup and Leduey. But it wasn't long before Bystrup, Leduey and Sutz were dropped from the leading trio of Cadalen, Mott and Woestenborghs.

Rain played an added factor in the race midway through the bike, which is also when Woestenborghs made his move to break away. His break was slow and calculated in the beginning, having moved up just a minute by the 70km mark. But by the end of the second lap, he sailed through the timing point five minutes ahead of the 11-man chase pack. He increased that lead to seven minutes by the time he put feet to pavement.

Behind him, the men jockeyed to put themselves into solid position with five men heading for the run within a minute of each other. Michael Wetzel (GER) and Matt Moorhouse (GBR) led the group, followed by Michael Kopf (GER), Marc Widmer (SUI) and Moser.

Like Nystrom, Woestenborghs was too strong to overcome on the run despite having 30km to work with. Although Moser closed in on the Belgium, the day belonged to Woestenborghs, as he captured the win in 6:21:39. Moser took second in 6:24:16, while Wetzel took bronze in 6:24:47.

Results: ITU Long Distance Duathlon World Championships

Zofingen, Switzerland