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Jan van Berkel (37) enjoys the last kilometers of his last race as a top athlete. The best Swiss triathlete runs solo to victory at the Ironman in Thun. He already has a smile on his face before turning the straight home. Then he lets the fans celebrate him.
Van Berkel wins Ironman Switzerland for the fourth time (after 2018, 2019 and 2021). In April, he announced that Thun’s match would be his last as a top athlete. He wanted to show everything. “I want to make sure that the winner deserves the title with my performance. And I would take it myself,” he told Blick before the game. He has now succeeded.
It was half way through the run
Van Berkel wins in 8 hours and 5 minutes. His race is a progression run: after swimming 3.8 km he is in tenth place. On the 180.2km bike course, the six-time Hawaii competitor battled his way to fourth place.
Halfway through the marathon distance (42.195 km) the time has come: Van Berkel overtakes Leonard Arnold and takes the lead. At the finish he celebrates victory with a lead of more than 2 minutes on the Germans. Third is the Swiss Andrea Salvisberg (34).
Van Berkel does not have much time to take a deep breath. From Thun we go straight to the SRF studio in Zurich. At the end of his career he is a guest on the “Sportpanorama” on early Sunday evenings.
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
