Race Report 2003 Powerman Italy / Parma

Press Release: 10 June 2003

Weather: Italian August weather, very hot and dry

Tina Walter and Bennie Vansteelant win Powerman Italy/Parma

What a great Sport’s day! The Powerman race had to be and has been the Duathlon day during the Barilla Sport Festival and at the end of the day really has transformed Parma in to a sport Capital. Almost all the best Duathletes in the world and all the Italian duathletes were in Parma on Saturday June 7.

The PowerMAN race

During the first run leg of the Powerman, held on the University Campus, Alessandri ( ITA) tried to force, finishing the 13,6 Km in 45’05”, followed as a shadow by Vansteelant (BEL,45’08”), and by De Ponte(ITA) and the French Franck Ronco, few seconds beyond but always in touch. In fact all the favourites did not want to loose contact before the bike, sure that the Great Belgium Bennie Vansteelant, who in the days before the race had spent many hours on the very technical bike course, to memorize all the difficulties, was going to leave his fellow athletes during the bike. In fact Benny Vansteelant(BEL) forced even during the first bike part, of the almost flat 14km part, where it is almost impossible to make the difference for everybody except Vansteelant(BEL) because Powerman race are non drafting. At the end of the first hill only Franc Ronco(FRA) was still in touch with the leader (30” at Km 18) while a group composed by the Italian duathletes De Ponte, Armuzzi, Alessandri and Torsani passed after 1’10”). In the following hills Vansteelant(BEL) performed a true show leaving Ronco(FRA) at the end of the leg at 90” and all the others at several minutes.The second run was showed Vansteelant(BEL) controlling the advantage to cross the finish line with hands to the sky in the time of 2h37’24”. Frank Ronco(FRA), the surprise of the day, was second and Alessandro Alessandri(ITA), the 2002 winner, third, having performed better during the second run than the other Italians, De Ponte, 4°, Armuzzi and Torsani. 7à was the Cus Parma champion Pigoni, 8^th the Belgium athlete Koen Maris, then the French Pascal Shuler and the Danish Kim Nilson, suffering for the hot weather that did not permit him to perform as in the Powerman Germany, when he was second behind Bennie Vansteelant(BEL). Bad luck for two of the favourites: Jurgen Dereere(BEL) and Richard Graemiger(SUI), who were not able to stay with the bests.

The PowerWOMAN race

Even among the ladies there has been an absolute protagonist: the German Tina Walters, leading already in the Campus. Meanwhile during the run only the Irish Anne Paul and the Cuban Yarisel Romero managed to stay close to the leader, on the bike it was the Swiss Jacqueline Uebelhart to show a great performance (1h44’24”), overcoming the above mentioned ladies and arriving back to the Campus behind only the unreachable Tina Walters(GER) (in 1h44’28”, despite of a fall after the first hill). Nothing changed during the final lap with Tina charming the crowd with a beautiful smile in the last 250 m, 2nd Uebellhart(SUI), then Anne Paul(IRL), 4° Yarisel Romero(CUB) and fifth, first of the Italians, for CUS Parma, Cinzia Arduzzoni.

In the Barilla Pasta Party tent, where the award ceremony took place, Tina Walters and Benny Vansteelant received the Trophies from the Cus Parma President Matteo de Sensi and had their moments of glory with the National anthems, and the claps of a large crowd, happy to celebrate such two great athletes. On Saturday 7th of June, Parma has demonstrated: “the Italians took Powerman is in their harts”.

2003 Powerman Italy/Parma, June 7,

Results top 10 Powerman

Pos. Cat.	Nat.	Cognome Nome	Time	1e Run	Bike	2e Run
1	BEL	VANSTEELANT BENNY	02:37:24.50	00:45:08.30	01:27:26.00	00:24:50.20
2	FRA	RONCO FRANCK	02:38:26.00	00:45:20.30	01:28:45.80	00:24:19.90
3	ITA	ALESSANDRI ALESSANDRO	02:41:32.50	00:45:05.50	01:33:41.30	00:22:45.70
4	ITA	DE PONTE MAURIZIO	02:42:34.00	00:45:19.60	01:33:35.30	00:23:39.10
5	ITA	ARMUZZI CORRADO	02:44:14.40	00:46:09.10	01:32:43.60	00:25:21.70
6	ITA	TORSANI MASSIMO	02:44:14.60	00:47:12.30	01:31:43.60	00:25:18.70
7	ITA	PIGONI MATTEO	02:46:38.60	00:46:02.70	01:36:19.60	00:24:16.30
8	BEL	KOEN MARIS	02:47:13.20	00:49:09.60	01:31:57.90	00:26:05.70
9	FRA	SCHULER PASCAL	02:48:09.10	00:47:17.00	01:35:09.60	00:25:42.50
10	DEN	NIELSEN KIM	02:49:44.30	00:47:15.40	01:37:47.80	00:24:41.10

Results top 10 Powerwoman

Pos.	NAT	Cognome nome	Time	1e Run	Bike	2e Run
1	GER	WALTER TINA	03:04:37.00	00:52:12.70	01:44:28.50	00:27:55.80
2	SUI	UEBELHART JACQUELINE	03:10:16.10	00:56:13.50	01:44:24.30	00:29:38.30
3	IRL	PAUL ANNE	03:13:10.00	00:53:11.70	01:50:04.30	00:29:54.00
4	CUB	ROMERO YARISEL	03:20:16.60	00:54:28.70	01:55:15.10	00:30:32.80
5	ITA	ARDUZZONI CINZIA	03:21:24.40	01:00:15.60	01:50:41.60	00:30:27.20
6	ITA	CHIUSOLE VERONICA	03:24:06.50	00:57:51.20	01:55:21.80	00:30:53.50
7	BEL	VAN HOOLANT MARTINE	03:25:17.10	01:00:11.80	01:53:57.20	00:31:08.10
8	SUI	AESCHHLIMANN KATRIN	03:28:51.50	01:03:13.10	01:52:18.90	00:33:19.50
9	ITA	DESIDERA' LISA	03:31:19.50	01:00:20.60	01:58:23.10	00:32:35.80
10	ITA	DORSI PATRIZIA	03:32:24.60	01:02:51.20	01:55:50.50	00:33:42.90

2003 POWERMAN WORLDRANKING DD 10-06-2003

	NAME	COUNTRY	TOTAL
1	Huub Maas	NED	3875
2	Stefan Riesen	SUI	2700
3	Benny Vansteelant	BEL	2500
4	Olivier Bernard	SUI	1900
5	Dirk Strothmann	GER	1625
6	Dereere Jurgen	BEL	1600
7	Kim Nielsen	DEN	1150
8	Greg Watson	USA	1100
9	Vincent Aldebert	FRA	975
10	Richard Graemiger	SUI	875
11	Clas Björling	SWE	870
12	Guirao Caro Juan Ant	ESP	795
13	Sindballe Torbjorn	DEN	750
14	Franck Ronco	FRA	650
15	Duchene Dominique	FRA	620
16	Svarre Henrik	DEN	595
17	Stig Brahe Soerensen	DEN	585
18	Maris Koen	BEL	565
19	Olaf Sabatschus	GER	500
	Goerke Nils	GER	500

2003 POWERWOMAN WORLDRANKING DD 10-06-2003

RANKING	NAME	COUNTRY	TOTAL
1	Walter Tina	GER	2700
2	Karin Thürig	SUI	2500
3	Ulrike Schwalbe	GER	1855
4	Lenka Ilavska	SVK	1850
5	Pincombe Vicky	GBR	1250
6	Edwige Pitel	FRA	1200
7	Martine Vanhoolandt	BEL	1045
8	Danielle Lentz	LUX	945
9	Erika Csomor	HUN	900
10	Desiree Ficker	USA	860
11	Konstanze Friedrich	GER	840
12	Ariane Schumacher	SUI	800
13	Heather Gollnik	USA	775
14	Andrea Ratkovic	USA	750
15	Katrin Aeschlimann	SIU	720
16	Bella Comerford	GBR	700
17	Susanne Norby Jensen Larsen	DEN	665
18	Dorte Morell	DEN	600
19	Wallenhorst Sandra	GER	600
20	Jane Fardell	AUS	550
	Nicole Klinger	LIE	550
	Marjan Huizing	USA	550