October 17^th , 2004

Kona Wrap - Stormin Normann and Nina the Machina!

Deutschland Dominates the Ironman as Stadler and Kraft take the race by the horns and run away to win their first Ironman.

Stadler, the 1994 Duathlon world Champion first competed at Ironman in 99 placing 15^th. He had to learn how to swim after getting bored with Duathlon sighting an Ironman Championship being the greatest achievement in Triathlon. He set out in fast fashion with a 15^th and a learning experience now behind him.

Germans have dominated the bike at Ironman since Wolfgang Dittrich leading off many times in front of 6 time Champion Mark Allen, only to fade on the run.

Then it was Jurgen Zack the powerful bike-runner from Koblenz who set the pace in the race during the 90’s and still going strong.

In 95 a young Thomas Hellriegel led Mark and Myself off the bike by 13.30 and I thought it no trouble as we would run him down , and like this years race, they came up short by under estimation, or was it that Stormin Norman was just simply too good?

In 97’ Thomas Hellriegel, it was the year that Germany had waited for and he wasn’t going to disappoint either. Zack led off the bike and Thomas just cruised into his rhythm and won it on the run.

This year was like 1981, yep John Howard led off the bike by over 17minutes and won by 26minutes.

Normann had always believed he could do this; it wasn’t as if he had not been trying either. Every year he has tried to break away, and sometimes it wasn’t enough, this year with the aid of strong wind and a field who thought he would come back, played right into Stadler’s hands.

Norm led off the bike and only had to match his best run here (a 2.56) and he would win. Could the pressure be too much, well, Reid would have to run a 2.38 to equal. Not since the course has changed has a runner gone close to breaking 2.40, so it looked as he was going to be the second German to win.

There were quite a few strange stories surrounding this day, with a number of top pros in the penalty box and a bunch of new Europeans leading the way.

Stadler went on to win easily and came across the line in the slowest winning time in 17 years. Dave Scott first broke 8.30 in 1986 then went 8.34 in 87 then every year has been faster.

Who cares, he won the Ironman! Good on ya Norm. Your shout for Bratwurst and beer my friend!

Nina…  I was saying all year she would be the next champ.

In July, Nina broke the magical nine hour barrier and sent the message that she was the challenger for Lori’s title.

From the outset, Nina was second out of the water and for someone who does not have a weakness, was off to a great start.

The challengers like Badmann, Bentley, Fuhr, Bowden, Granger and Major were all out in around the same time. Nina displayed strength and determination as not even Karen Thureig could catch her after winning the world time trial champs 2 weeks before Kona.

Kraft kept her wits and even copped a penalty. She was bummed in the box but still had a massive lead.

The girls had a see saw battle at the front though with Badmann riding hard but not being able to close the gap haven’t seen that before! Heather Fuhr had another superb result riding tough and putting her in striking position for 2^nd, but on the run it was Kraft who again ran a solid 3.06 to equal Bentley and Fuhr, two of the sports best runners.

Kraft was simply way too strong for the others and won her first of many titles to come I believe.

Badmann ran with a typical smile to get second and fast finishing Fuhr was third, another top result.

The new breed was next with Kate Major and Joanna Lawn and Belinda Granger impressing me.

Fernanda Keller was 9^th, so what you might say, she’s 41 mate! She has raced here 18 times and only a couple outside the top ten, AMAZING!

To all of you who were there, I hope you enjoyed yourselves and for the people who were not, well I hope you enjoyed reading on my site. I will be better at writing next year also. I was extremely busy working for Ironmanlive but I will write every day next year, and if there are things you would like me to write about then give me a holla!

Greg