Frenchman Émile Blondel-Hermant and Germany’s Merle Brunée were crowned the long-distance duathlon world champions this Sunday at the Powerman Zofingen 2024 with a powerful performance that saw them crossing the finish line clearly ahead the rest of the field. In the men’s race, Switzerland’s Jens-Michael Gossauer secured the bronze medal behind Belgium’s Seppe Odeyn, who made it back onto the podium for the first time since his 2021 victory in
Zofingen. In the women’s race, Germany celebrated a quadruple victory with Brunée on top of the podium, Maja Betz in second, Nelly Rassmann in third and Lisa Strothmann in fourth place.

Men’s race

Although he finished the Powerman Zofingen in under six hours, the new long-distance world champion Émile Blondel-Hermant could hardly see the ordeal in the finish area. “It was a great race. I always wanted to win here and today was that day”, said the Frenchman in the finish area. Last year, the 30-year-old had to settle for the silver medal and he wasn’t necessarily expecting to win this year either. “My preparation wasn’t ideal because I mainly trained for the sprint format. But I felt very good shape today”, he explained after crossing the finish line.

The men’s race was once again a thrilling race from the horn.  On the first 10-kilometre run, a trio of men managed to pull away slightly. Last year’s runner-up Émile Blondel-Hermant, last year’s third-placed Fabian Holbach from
Germany and the Swiss hopeful Jens-Michael Gossauer came into the transition zone together. A first setback awaited Holbach there. But the drama unfolded in transition, where the German received a penalty for a helmet violation, one minute that he had to serve and that would cost him to lose contact with the leaders.

However, he was later able to catch up with Blondel-Hermant and Gossauer on the bike. Meanqhile, Michiel Stockman (BEL) initially showed great form on the bike, turning the leading trio into a quartet and temporarily taking the lead. At the start of the third bike lap, more penalties, this time to Stockman and Holbach, meant that Blondel-Hermant and Gossauer took the lead. The Frenchman and the Swiss took it in turns to lead the race on the bike, with in the last kilometers Blondel-Hermant starting the final running section with a narrow lead.

There, the 30-year-old extended his lead over the Swiss and crossed the finish line with the second-fastest winning time in the history of the Powerman. Jens-Michael Gossauer, on the other hand, had to let the Belgian Seppe Odeyn pass him towards the end and had to settle for the bronze medal. For Odeyn, it was a successful return to the podium in Zofingen after his 2021 world championship title.

Women’s race

Local hero Melanie Maurer (SUI) fired up the turbo right from the start at her Powerman race. The Wikon native pulled away on the first running lap and opened up a one-minute lead over the rest of the field, and alone she made it to the first transition.

After the second run lap and the change to the bike, Maurer’s lead over her toughest rival and last year’s winner Merle Brunée had grown to almost two minutes. As the race progressed, however, Brunée was gradually able to close the gap on the bike until the key scene in this year’s women’s race occurred on the third and final bike lap on the climb to Mühlethal. Brunée overtook Maurer and pulled away. Shortly afterwards, the Swiss rider even had to take her foot off the pedals and stop. A short time later, the 36-year-old abandoned the race due to stomach problems.

For Merle Brunée, the path to her third long-distance world title after 2023 and 2021 was clear. The 30-year-old tackled the final run course with a 17-minute lead over her compatriot Maja Betz and confidently secured victory. “I wanted to run my race right from the start. If I had kept up with Melanie Maurer’s high initial pace, I probably wouldn’t have made it to the finish”, said the beaming winner, explaining her race strategy. “Each of my four performances in Zofingen was different. It’s another indescribable victory,” continued the successful German.

After Brunnée, three more German duathletes -Maja Betz, Nelly Rassmann and Lisa Strothmann - finished one after the other, meaning that Germany celebrated a phenomenal quadruple triumph.

Swiss victories over the short distance
Iwan Hasler from Aargau took victory in the short distance race (10 km run / 50 km bike / 5 km run). Among other things, he benefited from the fact that the initial leader and Swiss duathlete of the year 2023, Andrea Alagona, took a wrong turn on the Heitern and thus caught a longer final stretch. Only shortly after Hasler, Joel Graber from Bern and Stefan Ging from Zofingen crossed the finish line in second and third place.

Anna Zehnder from Seeland triumphed in the women’s short distance. She had already won the Powersprint Performance on Saturday and had a perfect Powerman weekend. Jannine Köppel from the Bernese Oberland finished in second place, one minute behind. Third on the podium was Martina Süess from Zug.