Triathlon: What is it always called? Defending a title is a lot harder than winning it for the first time. In this sense, the performance of Velomotion blogger Diana Riesler cannot be rated highly enough at this year's Ironman Malaysia: The 31-year-old defended her title there yesterday.
After nine hours and 37 minutes, Diana finally crossed the finish line and put her hands up - it was done, she had actually defended the title. In yet another difficult condition and relentless heat, she came out of the water in ninth position, just over four minutes behind leader Lucie Reed. But Diana's parade discipline was still to come - so off her Fuji and the hunt for the top was on.
After 35km in the saddle she had already caught up with the front runners and under Diana's constant pressure the leading group finally broke up as a result. Sarah Crowley was the only one who could keep up her pace for long stretches, but after 130km it was over for the Australian too. After 5:02 Diana finally got off the bike and with this sensational time she had gained a big cushion.
Even though every fiber of her body ached when she ran, the native of Thuringia brought the victory home with ease. By the way: Her time of 9:37 would have put her in the top 15 for men - congratulations and huge respect for this achievement. We're looking forward to the blog about it!