Posted: June 3, 2007

Triathlon: Austria IRONMAN 70.3 – Michael Göhner (GER) and Erika Csomor (HUN) winning in St. Pölten

From Press release: The first Ironman weekend in St.Pölten/Austria saw 5000 excited fans, 127 IronKIDS, 212 participants at the Fun- and Company Triathlon Challenge and another 568 athletes that took part in the Austria IRONMAN 70.3. The weather conditions were perfect until the gun went off to start the the first of 5 waves of athletes. A thunder storm and pouring rain could not stop the field during the 1.9km swim, 90km bike ride and 21.1km run. The first group with the professional athletes started at 2.00 p.m. Mitch Dean from Australia exited the water first, only seconds ahead of the first Austrian in the race, Daniel Niederreiter. On the bike course Niederreiter took the lead before Markus Fachbach (GER) and Leon Griffin (AUS). At kilometre 75 the German Michael Göhner took first place and kept the lead. Göhner ran out onto the run course, leaving Fachbach and Niederreiter in second and third place. The strong runners in the field, Gerrit Schellens (BEL), Hans Mühlbauer (GER) and Werner Leitner (AUT) were able to close the gap to Fachbach and Niederreiter, making it a 2nd place for Schellens, a 3rd place for Mühlbauer and a 4th place for Leitner crossing the finish line. Michael Göhner was the man of the day, setting the pace and achieving a phenomenal 3:53:49 total time. The womens race was dominated by Charlotte Kolters (DEN) during the swim and cycle discipline. Late in the run though, Erika Csomor from Hungary made her way to the top and won the Ironman 70.3 title 2007 in ST. Pölten, leaving Kolters (4:28:00) and the Italian Edith Niederfriniger (4:31:26) behind. Csomors winning time was 4:24:39. The online registration (www.ironman703.at.) for next years Ironman 70.3 event in St.Pölten will open tomorrow, June 4th, at midnight. To download race results and pictures please visit www.ironman703.at.