farfromfearless
Chrissie Wellington Narrowly Misses World Record At Ironman Frankfurt
Reigning Hawaii Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington added the European Ironman crown to her resume today with a comfortable win at Frankfurt. Wellington clocked the second fastest Ironman time in history at 8:51:24, missing Paula Newby-Fraser’s world record by just 31 seconds.
In the men’s race, Australian Chris McCormack matched Wellington, adding the European title to his 2007 victory in Hawaii. McCormack’s 7:59:55 set a new course record at Frankfurt, and was enough to see off 2005 Hawaii champion Faris Al-Sultan, who dropped out on the run after leading the race for most of the day.
Wellington is now an incredible four-for-four in her Ironman career, having won her maiden attempt at Ironman Korea last year, before winning at Kona, and then Ironman Australia in April of this year, where she finished an amazing ninth overall (against the male competitors).
Wellington was on target to beat the Newby-Fraser’s mark before she slowed down to celebrate ahead of the finish line. “I didn’t know anything about the record,” she said. “But enjoying this great atmosphere is more important than any best time.”
World record Ironman times are hard to come by - Luc Van Lierde’s 7:50:27 was set eleven years ago. Newby-Fraser’s record traces back further still, to 1994. The conditions need to be absolutely perfect to race these times, and while Wellington is clearly a supremely gifted athlete, she may never be fortunate enough to get the chance to go this fast again. A lot of things need to come together for the perfect race.
Meantime, McCormack is setting a new precedent by competing in major Ironman events in back-to-back weekends, having raced Frankfurt today, and the Quelle Challenge Roth next Sunday. In the past this would have been considered impossible, as the Ironman event puts a significant strain on the human body. McCormack remains characteristically optimistic. “For me it is important to try something that no-one has ever tried before. It’s a big challenge and I am curious myself how it is going to work out. A failure doesn’t count for me. I can never fail.”
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What frustrates me more about Wellington’s success is it goes largely unnoticed by the mainstream British sporting press. One imagines she’ll get a brief mention in the Times tomorrow, but at a time when we’re a nation really struggling to find international success in any sport you’d think they’d make a little more of an effort.
Update: You can read Chrissie’s very humble account of her day at her blog.
3 people have left comments
Andreas Rilinger said:
Thats an nice article about an incredible woman. Very interesting to read.
I missed her. Frankfurt is only 20 km from here.
Do you want to participate in an ironman some day?
Shéamus said:
I do indeed. 
It’s always been a goal of mine, but as I said in the challenge page of this blog, one step at a time. I’m thinking I should be ready around 2010, but you never know.
On a side note, this article has provided further insights into SEO and the power of the ‘long-tail’. If you Google ‘Chrissie Wellington Frankfurt’ my article shows up on the top four results in Google, even above Chrissie Wellington’s own blog! Amazing. Just shows how putting the page together properly (thanks, All-In-One SEO pack) and getting it out there early enough can reap great results. Suddenly, it’s become the#1 page on iRun365.com.
Andreas Rilinger said:
Yes, it’s nice to be toplisted in google if you don’t expect it. I like the fact, that you started this blog, cause it has a different audience than your mainblog. It’s interesting to see the blog developing. To have a maintopic helps your blog a lot. I think thats why go got toplisted for this page. Wish you even more success
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