Europe’s oldest triathlon sees hometown hero set a new course record
Marlene de Boer sets new national and course record at Challenge Almere-Amsterdam
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Challenge Almere-Amsterdam
Challenge Almere-Amsterdam is the oldest triathlon in Europe and the second-oldest full-distance race on the planet, but its struggled to remain in the spotlight over the last couple of years with the Ironman World Championship Nice taking place either on the same weekend (2023) or, as will be the case this year, a week later.
The race did serve as the Europe Triathlon Long Distance Championships, lending some gravitas to the race, and yesterday’s racing certainly showcased the talent on hand for the flat, fast race in the Netherlands.
de Boer sets new record
After a runner-up in her home-country race last year, Marlene de Boer blasted to a record-setting performance in 2024. After finishing the swim in second place behind Switzerland’s Alanis Siffert (who set a new swim course record of 51:05), de Boer, who finished the swim in 52:24, didn’t take long to ride to the front of the race. Her 4:25:26 bike split put her in T2 about 10 minutes ahead of the rest of the women, and she followed her speedy first two legs of the race up with a 2:59:54 marathon to finish in 8:22:30, setting a new Dutch record by two minutes and breaking the old course record by over eight minutes.
Siffert would hang on for second in 8:30:16, while Germany’s Jana Uderstadt enjoyed her first professional podium finish in 8:34:36.
Close men’s race
After Germany’s Lukas Wojt led a group out of the water that included countryman Florian Angert, Sweden’s Jesper Svensson and Great Britain’s Joshua Lewis, it was the Brit who would surge ahead on the bike and dictate the pace.
Lewis would hit T2 with a 90 second lead over The Netherlands’ Pim van Diemen. It wasn’t long, though, before Svensson passed the Dutchman, but still found himself losing time to Lewis. It wasn’t until the last few kilometres of the run that Lewis started to fade and Svensson would storm to the front of the race to take the win in 7:41:26. Lewis hung on for second in 7:47:29, while Denmark’s Lars Lumholt would use the day’s fastest marathon (2:39:03) to run his way to third (7:48:38).