At the 20th Challenge Roth event on 3 July 2022, the Germany town will witness world-class field in both the men’s and women’s races. Patrick Lange, Anne Haug and Sebastian Kienle, three world champions and winners in Roth are returning to the event.
The organisers at DATEV Challenge Roth powered by hep 2022 note that, despite two IRONMAN World Championships taking place this year… ‘world-class sport will once again feature at the ‘Franconian Hawaii’ anniversary event.
‘In fact, top American long-distance triathlete, Sam Long, has elected to race Roth over Kona.’
“The triathlon district of Roth can be very proud that we have three world champions and the 70.3 worlds runner-up and many other top-class athletes on the start line in the famous Roth canal,” said Race Director Felix Walchshöfer.
“This once again underlines the high status Roth enjoys in international triathlon. This starting field is unique in Europe this year – despite two IRONMAN World Championships [this year].”
Two-time Hawaii winner and Germany’s Sportsman of the Year 2018, Patrick Lange, returns in 2022 as the reigning Roth champion. The 35-year-old celebrated a convincing inaugural victory in 2021.
A raft of competitors will do everything to prevent his successful title defence. For Sebastian Kienle of hep-Sportsteam, Roth is one of the highlights on his previously announced two-year farewell tour from professional triathlon.
After his win in 2018 and his injury-related withdrawal last year, Kienle plans to pull out all the stops for 2022. With a second place to Maurice Clavel in his last race in November 2021 at IRONMAN South Africa, he will be a force to be reckoned with. Meanwhile, Clavel is no stranger to Roth either. In his personal best time of 8:04:53, he finished third in 2017 at his first appearance in Roth.
A leading American long-distance athlete could also top the podium. Currently fifth in the PTO rankings, Sam Long will make his Roth debut on 3 July. The fact the talented young athlete skipped the World Championships in Hawaii this year to race Roth shows he is giving it his all. The 26-year-old from Boulder, Colorado, won IRONMAN Cour d’Alene in June 2021 with a course record (8:07:40) and is the current runner-up world champion over the middle distance. Most recently, in March, he won his last two races at Clash Miami and Challenge Puerto Varas.
With a strong run record (2:35:40 – almost three minutes faster than winner Patrick Lange), Felix Hentschel caused a sensation in 2021 and he returns once again to represent Franconia. While, for Jan Stratmann, Roth is his first long distance ever.
Andi Böcherer already showed in 2019, when he was in the leading group for a long time, that he is also in the mix. Two internationals round out the top field – Brazilian Reinaldo Colucci, third at the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships at Challenge Almere 2021, and finally, Cameron Brown, the veteran New Zealand athlete with multiple long distance victories to his name.
Anne Haug showed what she’s made of at Roth last year. The reigning Hawaii champion delivered an exceptional performance on the bike, which was shortened by 10km, in a time of 7:53:48 and secured a home victory in her Roth debut.
With a time of 8:31:32, which Haug achieved at IRONMAN Copenhagen in 2019, she is the German record holder for 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run and is only 13 minutes short of Chrissie Wellington’s world record (8:18:13, set at Challenge Roth 2011).
Runner-up in DATEV Challenge Roth powered by hep 2021, Laura Siddall, is also returning to the event for the fifth time this year. The Brit became European long-distance champion in 2018 and in 2021 she finished second in Roth for the second time since 2017.
