Badman wins Ironman

Natascha Badman won the Ironman for the third time in Hawaii Keystone Archive

For the second consecutive time, Switzerland's Natascha Badman has won the prestigious Ironman thriathlon in Hawaii.

Badman, who took the Ironman for the third time in 9:28’37”, came out victorious four minutes ahead of the Canadian Lorie Bowden and Germany’s Nina Kraft.

“I thought we’d had the toughest weather conditions imaginable last year, but I was wrong,” Badman said after the race. “Halfway through the cycling race, strong winds made me swerve from left to right on the road.”

Badman said she had not been worried by Nina Kraft’s headstart in the race.

“I was not surprised to see Nina Kraft lead the cycling for so long,” Badman said. “She’s already won two Ironman races.”

The athlete from canton Aargau overtook Kraft 150km into the cycling race. She then set a new record for the marathon in 3:09’33” – nine minutes faster than her time last year.

The Swiss athlete said she had worked hard during this year to improve her running abilities. However, Badman said “every step in Hawaii made me suffer.”

“But I persevered, because I knew I was a better athlete on the whole compared with last year.”

“This victory is fantastic,” Badman said. “It was amazing how happy spectators were about my victory.”

More than 1,500 athletes from 28 different countries participated in the event, which included 4km of swimming, 180 of cycling and just under 43km of running.

In the past 12 months, Switzerland has had several significant victories in triathlon.

These included two Olympic medals with Brigitte McMahon (gold) and Magali Messmer (bronze), as well as a women’s junior World Championship title by Nicola Spirig. Switzerland also won the men’s junior European Championship title thanks to Sven Riederer and a World Cup victory in Lausanne with Reto Hug.

swissinfo with agencies