Yvonne Van Vlerken breaks 9 hours at Roth

June 24, 2007- Quelle Challenge Roth ROTH, Duitsland-Top duathlete Yvonne van Vlerken took a dramatic 8:51:55 win in her first long course triathlon on Sunday, running her way to the first sub-9 hour performance here in 10 years. Van Vlerken became the first Dutch woman to win in Roth since the legendary Dutch triathlete Thea Sybesma won here in a then world-best time of 9:55:29 in 1991. Paula Newby Fraser eventually lowered that record to 8:50:53 in 1994, a mark that still stands as the world's fastest. 2006 Roth champion Joanna Lawn of New Zealand was second, achieving her goal of a sub-9 hour finish when she broke the tape in 8:58:25, with 2005 champ and last year's second place finisher Belinda Granger of Australia rounding out the podium in 9:07:56.

Van Vlerken also won the world duathlon long distance and European championships last year. "All week long I thought I would be in so much pain on Sunday, but on the race the pain just didn't come," a still stunned van Vlerken said after the race. "I like this much, much better than the short distance races I've had so far. To have this time and to win against two girls that are so strong on this distance, what can I say-I've been crying and I really can't believe that I finished under nine hours."Lawn said she was disappointed to come second after recording a personal best and dipping under nine hours as well but ultimately was satisfied with her effort. "It's a clean slate at the beginning of

the race and she did an absolutely phenomenal time," Lawn said of van Vlerken's effort. "I'm very pleased, and disappointed, because you come here to win and I gave it my all. I did have a goal to break 9 hours. I have to be happy with that. I was very, very pleased with breaking the nine-hour barrier because that's huge for females to aim at. I tried hard all the way but she was just amazing today."

Helping athletes along were crowds an estimated 140,000 strong to mark the 20th anniversary of triathlon in Roth. "The crowd support today was just more overwhelming than last year," Lawn said.

HOW THE DAY UNFOLDED

Lawn was out of the water second behind German age grouper Anja Ippach, with Granger about a minute back and Germany's Heike Funk, second here in 2003, third out another minute back. It wasn't long before Granger had bridged the gap on the bike and the Aussie and the Kiwi were together as they started their climb up the legendary Solarer Berg on the first lap. Ippach had dropped back five minutes while van Vlerken was maintaining her gap to the leaders at a little more than 6 minutes.

Granger and Lawn were still together by the time they reached T2 but van Vlerken had closed the gap to about five minutes with Hungary's Erika Csomor lying in fourth. As they headed out onto the marathon Lawn immediately distanced herself from Granger and by about 13km had widened her lead to two minutes. But van Vlerken was moving up on both of them. "I knew that I could ride the bike really hard," said the Dutchwoman who lives and trains in Austria. "I didn't think I could run this good. The run was really
crazy. I just enjoyed it. I've been training for this for seven years. I wanted to have a

good debut I think it's just plain crazy what happened today." Granger, a powerful cyclist who posted the day's fastest ride (a 4:51:36, 12 seconds faster than Lawn) was asked whether she should have tried to open up a gap on Lawn during the ride-but the Aussie wasn't sure that tactic would have worked. "I can't be upset because what people don't realize is Jo comes from a cycling background," said Granger. "Now [that she's a triathlete] she doesn't have a weakness." "I'm very happy with my bike ride," Granger continued. "I'm still happy with my race. Obviously I get so frustrated with my running. I really want to get the combination together."

And she again expressed her fondness for Roth, where she now spends at least one month a year in preparation for the race. "I'm still happy to be on the podium," she said. "Even though this is my job and it's my profession, coming to Roth is no longer about my job. It's a lifestyle for me now."

In the firefighters' world title race, top honors went to Silja Rohfling of Germany, representing TRI-EMTV-Elmshorn, won in 11:20:02.

Roth offered a prize purse of 73,500 Euro-paid 10 deep-along with a bonus of US$100,000 for any athlete who could break Newby-Fraser's or Luc van Lierde's record.

A traditional fireworks display and massive finish line party closed out a celebration of 20 years of triathlon in Roth made sweeter by the announcement at day's end that title sponsor Quelle, Germany's largest mail-order company, will remain on board in that role for the 2008 running. The Quelle Challenge Roth, the former Ironman Europe, is celebrating its sixth anniversary as an independent race and had 2,500 individual entries and another 500 relay teams. In total, some 4,000 endurance athletes tackled the course.