Home > Personalities

Can Anne Haug set another record at Challenge Roth on Sunday?

In May she shattered a 29-year-old record set by one of the sport's all-time legends. Is she ready to make more history at Challenge Roth this weekend?

Photo by: Kevin Mackinnon

Heading into May’s Ironman Lanzarote race, Anne Haug wasn’t sure of her fitness. At the end we had an answer for the 41-year-old – she was very fit. The German, a two-time Olympian and 2019 Ironman world champion, missed a number of early season races due to illness, but bounced back in style.

Haug’s 9:06:40 shattered the course record set by Ironman legend Paula Newby-Fraser in 1995 (9:24:39) by almost 18 minutes. Along the way she set new bike (5:17:49) and run (2:49:08) records, too. Her 54:26 swim put her about five minutes up on the rest of the field, and her lead only grew from there. In the end she finished over 43 minutes up on France’s Jeanne Collonge (9:50:24) and two-time defending champ Lydia Dant (9:54:54).

A late entry to this weekend’s Challenge Roth event, Haug caught up with Bob Babbitt during the “Breakfast with Bob Challenge Roth 2024 Edition” show today. They chatted about her decision to jump into the race, and the experience of finishing second to Daniela Ryf’s world best 8:08 performance last year.

Race fit

After being sick early this year, Haug decided to kick off her 2024 racing in Lanzarote, where she spends about six months of the year – she is an ambassador for the race’s title sponsor, Club La Santa. While she’d won the 70.3 race in Lanzarote twice (including her half-distance debut in 2017, where she beat Lucy Charles-Barclay), Haug said before the race that she’d always been wary of competing at Ironman Lanzarote because she knew how tough it would be. After the race she said it “was the toughest thing she’d ever done.”

Anne Haug shatters 29-year-old record at Ironman Lanzarote

It certainly didn’t look that way as she flew to a 14th place finish overall. Only two men in the field would run faster. To put her performance in perspective, Newby-Fraser’s legacy in both triathlon and the sporting world is unsurpassed. In addition to her eight Kona wins, Newby-Fraser was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the top 60 athletes of the 20th century.

Haug set a new run course record of 2:48:23 in Kona last year.

After the race Haug was quick to point out that there’s no comparison between the equipment she used to set the new record and the gear Newby-Fraser was using in 1995. While that might be true, the course Haug competed over included a lot more climbing than the one Newby-Fraser raced on. (Yeah, hard to believe they managed to make Ironman Lanzarote even tougher, right?) The road surface that Newby-Fraser dealt with in 1995, though, was much rougher than the smooth pavement athletes have enjoyed on the Canary Island over the last decade or so.

Newby-Fraser, ever a class act, was quick to acknowledge Haug’s amazing performance. When I pointed out Haug’s comments about the difference in equipment, she laughed.

“That’s sweet, but she was epic,” Newby-Fraser said.

Anne Haug becomes the first German woman to win the Ironman World Championship

At 41 Haug isn’t ready to back off any time soon. She loves the training and the single-minded focus required of one of the sport’s top competitors. The infection that forced her to delay her start to the 2024 season might end up being a blessing – last year the German started the season with a bang thanks to huge wins at Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote and the PTO European Open, then rounded things out with a series of runner-up finishes including Roth and in Kona behind Lucy Charles-Barclay’s record-setting performance.

Last month, while Charles-Barclay was taking the full-distance win at Ironman Nice, Haug raced in the 70.3 race that ran concurrently as a way to check out the Ironman World Championship course in Nice this September. This weekend she’ll continue to hone her speed as she looks for a third Roth title and, later this season, another Ironman World Championship win.

Parts of this story appeared in the July issue of Triathlon Magazine.