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Challenge Roth hosts the European Championships

Bracht, Brown, Aigroz, Gajer, Tajsich, and Joyce headline the field Sunday.

Challenge Roth, will host the official ETU European Long Distance Championships for the first time on July 8, 2012.

Over 3,200 individual participants and 650 relay teams from 62 nations will take part in the “best old race”. They will be cheered on by 180,000 spectators along the course and at the Triathlon Stadium. The race starts at 6.30 am (local time in Roth, Germany) with the 3.8 km swim in the Main-Donau-Canal, and continues with a 180 km bike and the final 42.2 km marathon run.

Challenge Roth is renowned for its fast course and the winner is expected to cross the line in less than the magic eight hours with an eye on the world record time of 7:41:33 set by Andreas Raelert (GER) in Roth last year. The women’s world record was also established in Roth: British athlete Chrissie Wellington undercut her own record for the third time in 2011, and finished in a time of 8:18:13.

Challenge Roth again features a strong pro field. Timo Bracht (GER), seven-time Ironman winner and fifth-place finisher at last year’s Ironman World Championships, multiple iron distance champion Cameron Brown from New Zealand, and Mike Aigroz from Switzerland, as well as Julia Gajer, new half-distance European Champion and second-place finisher of last year’s Challenge Roth, Sonja Tajsich from Regensburg (best German female triathlete in 2011 Ironman Hawaii), and Rachel Joyce, current long-distance Word Champion (GBR).

The new Challenge Cockpit means you can ‘Be a Part’ of Challenge Roth, wherever you are in the world thanks to the extensive live coverage available on race day. Situated on the www.challenge-roth.com homepage this new cockpit style interface allows users to easier direct access to all the live coverage on race day. This will include direct links to “Challenge TV”, which will be on air from 5.00am until the closing of the finish-line, to the live streams, live radio, live webcams and the popular “athlete tracker”, with which athletes can be tracked live during the race. The Challenge Cockpit will also provide access to the live ticker of tri2b, current reports and picture gallery.

Challenge Roth Pro Starters – Men
Timo Bracht (GER)
Cameron Brown (NZL)
Keegan Williams (NZL)
Felix Schumann (GER)
Mike Aigroz (SUI)
Andrej Vistica (CRO)
James Cunnama (RSA)
Lothar Leder (GER)
Georg Potrebitsch (GER)
Jamie Whyte (NZL)
Stephen Bayliss (GBR)

Challenge Roth Pro Starters – Women
Julia Gajer (GER)
Rachel Joyce (GBR)
Belinda Granger (AUS)
Sonja Tajsich (GER)
Nicole Leder (GER)
Gina Crawford (NZL)
Lucie Zelenkova-Reed (CZE)
Rebekah Keat (AUS)
Yvette Grice (GBR)
Wenke Kujala (GER)