Raelert pips Twelsiek in Ironman Austria

European middle distance triathlon champion Andreas Raelert defeated Maik Twelsiek in the marathon portion for an overall German 1-2 finish at the Ironman Austria event on Sunday, while Erika Csomor of Hungary won the women’s race.

Raelert was fifth after the swimming and fourth after the cycling, before overtaking then leaders Twelsiek and Philip Graves of Britain after nine kilometres of running.

Raelert, who holds the world record on the Ironman distance and took silver at the worlds last year, surged ahead of the field to complete the marathon in just over 2 hours, 40 minutes. He finished in an unofficial 7:59:51.

Twelsiek clocked 8:11:36, while David Plese of Slovenia came third in 8:19.13. Graves pulled out later during the marathon.

Bart Colpaert of Belgium, who was the fastest swimmer and led a major part of the cycling stage, finished sixth in 8:26:17.

Csomor started the marathon 1 minute, 49 seconds ahead of the field and her lead was never challenged. The Hungarian became the only woman to finish within nine hours at 8:59:31.

It was Csomor’s fifth career title and second of the year after winning in Los Cabos, Mexico in March. Csomor won her first title here in 2004, and finished runner-up twice in 2011-12.

Asa Lundstroem of Sweden came second in 9:04:42 and Eimear Mullan of Ireland was an extra 1:04 back in third.