This year Zofingen celebrates 29 years of competition. This small town in Switzerland has become the “place to be”, the “must do”, the “bucket list” entry for all determined duathletes (and quite a few triathletes) and definitely the biggest and toughest test for long distance duathlon. Most of them will gather this weekend in the beautiful town, for the tenth consecutive year, for the 2017 ITU Duathlon Long Distance World Championships. A challenging 10k run, 150k bike and final 30k run to test the endurance; physical and mental, of the athletes.
As you enter the venue there is a board, a Hall of Fame that reads like a “who’s who” of famous names. On that board, the name of Emma Pooley shows three straight victories. Can she make it 4 in 2017 and add this world title to the European one that she won in Sankt Wendel?
Her closest opposition, Nine Brenn might not be starting after a crash a week ago but the Dutch athlete, Miriam van Reijen and Germany’s Katrin Esefeld will make sure Pooley has to work.
Make or break – it will be Bodenburg that most will fear. The massive climb that the athletes face on each of the three laps is where the race can be won or lost.
The defending champion for the men is Seppe Odeyn (BEL). Continuing the great Belgian tradition of long distance duathlon, Odeyn’s power is in that long, tough distance work and he will be hoping to repeat his stunning victory from 2016. Main rival from Germany, Felix Köhler had a great victory in Sankt Wendel but he too had a crash recently and will be making a call on whether tor ace or not in the next few hours. Denmark’s Søren Bystrup won bronze last year.
Early season silver in Sankt Wendel could see him improve this year on the long course but he will not have it easy with Thomas Bruins (NED) and 2015 winner from France, Gaël Le Bellec both racing.
Age Group athletes from all over the world are now exploring the city and looking at the build of the arena, riding around the bike course and making last-minute changes to their clothing as the rains continue. The oldest competitor comes all the way from Argentina. Juan Alberto Marquez has become a bit of a celebrity in his home country and will be hoping for a better time than last year, when he missed out on the medals.
This year there will be three athletes racing in a very particular category: doing the run backwards. Oh yes …. Backwards running. Hassan Kurt holds the World record for 100k backwards running and will be up against two others this year. How long for the 100k backwards? 21 hours and 34 minutes.
You can follow the race with live-tracking.