Bockel and Sessner win Ironman Regensburg

Luxembourg’s Dirk Bockel and Germany’s Heidi Sessner both won their first Iromman titles today at Ironman Regensburg.

Germany’s Michael Raelert, a two-time Ironman 70.3 Chammpion, led the swim  45:01 (setting a new record), but Bockel took over the lead late during the bike (4:31:08 top ride), and ran 2:51:56 to run away from Raelert to take the win in 8:11:59. Raelert easily took second (8:18:53) in his Ironman debut. Switzerland’s Mike Schifferle overcame a slow swim with a race day best run of 2:50:52 run to finish third (8:36:53).

Men

1 Bockel Dirk LUX 8:11:59

2 Raelert Michael GER 8:18:53

3 Schifferle Mike SUI 8:36:53

4 Kaiser Jens GER 8:43:57

5 Vabrousek Petr CZE 8:47:53

Fourth last year, Sessner (formerly Jesberger) had the second fastest swim of 53:22 (just 15 seconds down from the USA’s Alisa Scudamore), then rode 5:16:55 to come off the bike with a 2:52 lead over Austria’s Monika Stadlmann. But with Stadlmann crumbling in the first half of the run, Sessner only needed to run 3:29:15 to earn the easy victory (9:42:52). Age groupers Nicole Bretting (W40-44) of Germany (9:50:18), and Maria Lemeseva (W18-24) of Russia (9:52:31) finished second and third respectively.

Women

1 Sessner Heidi GER 9:43:52
2 Bretting Nicole GER 9:50:18
3 Lemeseva Maria RUS 9:52:31
4 Gerber Karin SUI 10:00:31
5 Geilhof Barbara GER 10:00:48