IRONMAN record breaker Laura Philipp says UNDER eight hours could be under threat next

STRENGTH. ENDURANCE. PERFORMANCE.

Laura Philipp suggested the first-ever full-distance sub-eight hours time by a woman could be possible at IRONMAN Hamburg in the future – with one proviso!

German superstar Philipp smashed the previous best time for an IRONMAN-branded race when she clocked 8:03:13 on Sunday after an epic battle battle with Kat Matthews.

Philipp of course had beaten her British rival to win a first IRONMAN World Championship crown in Nice last year but this latest renewal was arguably a level up even on that.

They were locked together until the closing stages of the run as the previous best IRONMAN time – Matthews’ 8:10:34 in Texas in April – was destroyed by both of them.

‘Absolutely mental’

And speaking afterwards to Paul Kaye on the live broadcast, Philipp said: “Yeah, it was absolutely mental. We were glued together for the entire race. It was super tough and for a long time it looked like Kat would run away with it.

“But I just tried to be calm and patient because a marathon is a long game. And luckily it paid off, I let her go a little bit and just did my own thing and the crowd was crazy.

“I hope you guys could see it from back home, they were screaming so loud. I think it was really next level, the cheering here on the course. So that definitely helped me big time to go all out on the last lap. And when I overtook Kat I couldn’t believe it.”

‘I need to lie down’

Hamburg has a couple of super-long transitions and when Kaye put it to her that but for them, a time of under eight hours could have been under threat, Philipp agreed.

“Yeah, I think so. Hamburg, if you want us to go sub eight, you have to do something about the long transitions!”

Philipp took 3:39 at T1 and then 2:51 at T2 as she went incredibly close to Anne Haug’s fastest full-distance triathlon time of 8:02:38 from Challenge Roth last year, though she did just beat Haug’s fastest-ever marathon time with her 2:38:27 knocking 25 seconds off that mark.

It was a remarkable display by both her and Matthews – as well as Norway’s Solveig Løvseth who obliterated the previous record by an IRONMAN debutant as she took third.

Remarkable performances from all three [Photo credit: IRONMAN]

And Philipp added: “Right now I’m still speechless. I need to lie down – I’m really done but also super, super proud.

“It’s still very early but of course this is a big boost and I will take it and hopefully recover well and then continue to build strong towards Kona in October.”

Written by

Jonathan Turner

Jonathan Turner is News Director for both TRI247 and RUN247, and is accustomed to big-name interviews, breaking news stories and providing unrivalled coverage for endurance sports.

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