How to watch the Ironman European Championship Frankfurt
Sunday's race features an interesting rematch between a pair of the sport's top long-distance competitors
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
Earlier this month the men competed in Hamburg. On Sunday, in Frankfurt, it will be the women’s turn to go after the Ironman European Championship. While the race field doesn’t quite match the star-studded line up we saw at Challenge Roth last weekend, as the regional championship the race has attracted a strong field vying for both Kona slots and their share of the US$75,000 prize purse.
Live Coverage
The race will be streamed live both on Facebook and Ironman’s YouTube channel. The coverage page is embedded below.
Who’s racing
Last year’s European champion (the women raced in Hamburg last year), Laura Philipp, was one of the stars we saw racing in Roth last weekend (she finished third behind Daniela Ryf and Anne Haug). The race does feature an interesting rematch, though, as the 2019 Ironman European Champion, Skye Moench, is back (pictured above winning in Frankfurt), as is fellow American Sarah True.
At that race in 2019, True had a huge lead on the run, but collapsed just a few hundred metres from the finish line. We’ll get to see a rematch between the two on Sunday.
The woman wearing race #1 on Sunday will be Germany’s Daniela Bleymehl, last year’s champion. The win in Frankfurt was just one of Bleymehl’s impressive performances of 2022 as she returned from having her second child in July, 2021 – she won in South Africa and took second at Ironman Israel, too.
Others in the field to watch include super-swimmer Lauren Brandon (USA), who could have some company at the front end of the swim and bike from New Zealand’s Rebecca Clark. You can always expect a fast run from Denmark’s Maja Stage Nielsen, who could be a factor if she can stay close enough entering T2. Another athlete who could factor into the mix is Germany’s Svenja Thoes.
You can see the full field here.
Rematch x2
In addition to the race in 2019, True and Moench are coming off a close race in May. At Ironman Chattanooga Paula Findlay dominated the day’s racing, but there was 67 seconds separating second from fifth. At that race, True finished fourth, just seven seconds ahead of Moench.
Like Bleymehl, True enjoyed an impressive 2022 after becoming a mom in 2021. She won Ironman Lake Placid and took the win at Ironman Arizona after pulling out of the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. Moench was second to True in Arizona, but finished ninth in Kona six weeks earlier.
All of which is to imply that we should see an interesting race between Bleymehl, Moench and True on Sunday, with some other speedsters added to the mix to keep things interesting.
