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Daniela Reeve should finish eighth at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.
The brutal hardships of Daniela Reeve in Hawaii. The native Solothurn cannot defend her title and is only eighth. At the finish line, when the awards ceremony is already over, Reeve is too disappointed and can’t hold back the tears.
The mood on the podium is completely different. When the Ironman World Championships returns to the Big Island after three years, there is a surprise winner in the women’s race. In her Ironman World Championship debut, Chelsea Sodaro (33) won a solid marathon of 2:51:45 hours ahead of Britain’s Lucy Charles Barkley and Germany’s 2019 winner Anne Hogg.
It is the first American victory for women in more than two and a half decades. Four-time Ironman World Champion Chrissy Wellington (2007) of Great Britain was the last Hawaiian to win.
Reef is not among the best in the marathon
Although Reeve is once again the first to reach the second transition zone, the continuation of the race is different from most of the past. In Reef wins in Hawaii from 2015 to 2018, after a dominant performance on the bike, she was still able to complete a marathon among the top runners.
This is no longer the case this time. Reeve, a five-time world champion over the Ironman half-distance, isn’t making the dynamism and efficiency of her best days. As in the same place in 2019, she had to make her way when she was ranked number 13 due to her poor health.
Reeve takes the lead from Britt Lucy Charles Barkley less than seven kilometers from the end of the bike path. That came with the second-best bike time in women’s racing history in Kona. The five-time Ironman world champion tackles the race seven seconds ahead of last year’s Ironman 70.3 world champion and Ironman World Championship runner-up Charles Barkley. But then the Reef River collapses.
The English woman responded for the first kilometer and quickly and clearly distanced herself from the Swiss. At kilometer 7, the subsequent winner Sudaro also overtakes the Swiss. And then the other competitors. Reeve, the outstanding athlete in recent years, is gone.
14th place after swimming
Already in the first discipline, Daniela Reeve remained a little short of her return. After a 3.86km run, she came out of the water in 14th place, nearly seven minutes behind top swimmer Lucy Charles Barkley.
In cycling, the Ryf increases speed by 100 km. She outperforms many competitors and constantly closes the gap to the leading duo with Charles Barkley and her compatriot Langridge. The race to catch up on cycling must have cost Reeve a lot of grain.
New Ironman World Champion Chelsea Sodaro finished fourth at the 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Nice, where Ryf triumphed. In Hawaii, Sudaro only competed with the second Ironman in her career after Hamburg. There she took second place at the beginning of June.
The men’s race will take place with Jan van Berkel as the only Swiss hope on Sunday evening Swiss time. (SDA)
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