Saturday, August 28, 2021
Ryders Cup for triathletes
Frodeno leads Team Europe to win the Collins Cup
In golf, Europe and the USA have been competing against each other for years – now there is this duel also among the triathletes. There is even a third team at the start. At the premiere, 36 athletes competed against each other. Jan Frodeno as the star of the scene is the measure of all things here too.
Team Europe, led by triathlon superstar Jan Frodeno, clearly won the premiere of the Collins Cup. In the competition, teams from Europe and America as well as an international selection based on the legendary Ryders Cup in golf competed against each other. In Samorin, Slovakia, three athletes were sent twelve times in succession to the route of two kilometers of swimming, 80 kilometers of cycling and 18 kilometers of running.
The European team scored by far the most points with 42.5 and won half of the races. Like Frodeno. The now 40-year-old three-time Ironman world champion also set the day’s best time in 3:13:08 hours.
Meanwhile, world champion Anne Haug had to admit defeat to American Jackie Hering in her race, Sebastian Kienle, Hawaii champion from 2014, lost out to Lionel Sanders from the international team. The Canadian had finished second at the Ironman in Copenhagen last Sunday. Two-time Ironman world champion Patrick Lange was only third in his race.
Team USA got 31.5 points in the competition, the international selection got 25.5. There were three points for a win, two for second and one for third. In addition, additional points were distributed for time intervals.
Ironman postponed to Hawaii
It was also the first competition after the postponement of the legendary Ironman in Hawaii to February 2022. The triathlon world championship was actually supposed to take place on October 9th. The new date is now February 5, 2022. The organizers expect two editions in the coming year. There should also be a competition in October at the usual time.
“The resurgence of the virus and the new Delta variant are having a significant impact on the islanders of Hawaii. Combined with the substantial border closings and travel restrictions for qualified athletes, there is no feasible way to hold the Ironman World Championship in October,” explained managing director Andrew Messick . Since Kienle’s victory in 2014, there have only been German winners in Hawaii: Frodeno won in 2015, 2016 and 2019, in between Lange took first place twice. The Ironman has been held since 1978.
Despite his age, Frodeno would probably have traveled to the island in the shape of his life: only in mid-July had he pulverized his own world record of 3.8 kilometers of swimming, 180.2 kilometers of cycling and 42.2 kilometers of running. One month before his 40th birthday, the Allgäu was the first person to stay under seven and a half hours over the long distance – despite continuous rain and falls on the running track. When he crossed the finish line of the elaborately and privately staged race duel with Lionel Sanders, the clock stopped at an initially unofficial 7:27:46 hours. At the European Championship a month later, Frodeno did not start. The Swede Patrik Nilsson won the title in just under eight hours.
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