World's fastest female runner-cyclist-swimmer

At the Eagleman Ironman 70.3 the Swiss Natascha Badmann set a new world record for women with 4:08:18 – and it was totally unplanned.

“I was really trying to get the world record here last year,” said Natascha Badmann, the six-time Hawaii Ironman World Champion. “This year I didn’t think about it, and I got it.” Badmann’s unplanned best performance occurred on June 10 at the Eagleman Ironman 70.3 in Cambridge, Maryland (USA) – on one of the known fastest triathlon courses in the racing calendar. For the 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 on the bike and 13.1 of running she took 4:08:18 hours, almost 10 minutes less than her victory last year. Back then however, unexpected rivals caused her some trouble. After a jellyfish attack whilst swimming not only were her overstressed muscles burning but also painful wounds on her face ...

Quick legs thanks to a gut feeling of anger

 

This time Badmann also had to deal with unfair competitors. “I headed out saying ‘I’ll give the best I have,’ and I probably wasn’t in shape to win,” the 40-year-old triathlon legend explained at the finish line. “But it made me so mad when I saw that they didn’t race fairly that I had to race for justice!” She reproached other competitors for using the banned slipstream to their advantage.

Full speed ahead on the bike

 

Natascha’s outburst of anger, to which she later added with a wink “You can’t put a fist in your pocket,” was also reflected in her times. In contrast to previous years the woman from Switzerland held herself back at the beginning and didn’t take the lead until the last five miles on the bike. Her half-marathon split of one hour and 23 minutes was enough to give her a comfortable five-minute advantage over her closest rival at the finish line.