Frenchman Émile Blondel-Hermant and German Merle Brunée win the Powerman Zofingen 2024 and take the long-distance duathlon world championship title. In the men's race, Switzerland's Jens-Michael Gossauer secured world championship bronze behind Belgium's Seppe Odeyn, who made it back onto the podium for the first time since his 2021 victory in Zofingen. Germany celebrated a quadruple victory in the women's race. Merle Brunée was crowned world champion for the third time at the Powerman. Local heroine Melanie Maurer's last appearance in Zofingen ended in disappointment. She had to abandon the race with stomach problems. Most of the race took place in light rain and pleasant temperatures. There was heavy rain at the end of the long-distance race.
Although he finished the Powerman Zofingen in under six hours, the new long-distance world champion Émile Blondel-Hermant could hardly see the ordeal in the finish area. ‘It was a great race. I always wanted to win here and today was that day,’ said the Frenchman in the finish area. Last year, the 30-year-old had to settle for the silver medal and he wasn't necessarily expecting to win this year either: ‘My preparation wasn't ideal because I mainly trained for the sprint format. But I felt in very good shape today.’ The men's race offered very exciting duathlon sport.
Merle Brunnée and Émile Blondel-Hermant
Exciting race
On the first 10-kilometre run, a trio of men managed to pull away slightly. Last year's runner-up Émile Blondel-Hermant, last year's third-placed Fabian Holbach from Germany and the Swiss hopeful Jens-Michael Gossauer came into the transition zone together. A first setback awaited Holbach there. The German received a time penalty because his bike helmet was lying ready with the buckle closed. According to the regulations, this may not be closed. Holbach lost a minute on the leaders due to the time penalty. However, he was later able to catch up with Blondel-Hermant and Gossauer on the bike. The Belgian Michiel Stockman initially showed great form on the bike, turning the leading trio into a quartet and temporarily taking the lead.
At the start of the third bike lap, there was a caesura in the men's race. Stockman and Holbach were penalised for infringements and had to go into the penalty box. The two lost valuable time to Blondel-Hermant and Gossauer. The Frenchman and the Swiss took it in turns to lead the race on the bike. Blondel-Hermant tackled the final running section with a narrow lead. There, the 30-year-old extended his lead over the Swiss and crossed the finish line with the second-fastest winning time in the history of the Powerman. Jens-Michael Gossauer, on the other hand, had to let the Belgian Seppe Odeyn pass him towards the end and had to settle for the bronze medal. For Odeyn, it was a successful return to the podium in Zofingen after his 2021 world championship title.
Men's podium from left: Seppe Odeyn and Émile Blondel-Hermant (Jens-Michael Gossauer is missing)
Brunée defends the World Championship title
Local hero Melanie Maurer fired up the turbo right from the start at her Powerman dernière. The Wikon native pulled away on the first running lap and opened up a one-minute lead over the following athletes. After the second run lap and the change to the bike, Maurer's lead over her toughest rival and last year's German winner Merle Brunée had grown to almost two minutes. As the race progressed, however, the German was gradually able to close the gap on the bike until the key scene in this year's women's race occurred on the third and final bike lap on the climb to Mühlethal. Brunée overtook Maurer and pulled away. Shortly afterwards, the Swiss rider even had to take her foot off the pedals and stop. A short time later, the 36-year-old abandoned the race due to stomach problems. The last appearance in Zofingen ended bitterly for Melanie Maurer.
For Merle Brunée, the path to her third long-distance world title after 2023 and 2021 was clear. The 30-year-old tackled the final run course with a 17-minute lead over her compatriot Maja Betz and confidently secured victory. ‘I wanted to run my race right from the start. If I had kept up with Melanie Maurer's high initial pace, I probably wouldn't have made it to the finish,’ said the beaming winner Merle Brunnée, explaining her race strategy. ‘Each of my four performances in Zofingen was different. It's another indescribable victory,’ continued the successful German. After Brunnée, three more German duathletes - Maja Betz, Nelly Rassmann and Lisa Strothmann - finished one after the other, meaning that Germany celebrated a phenomenal quadruple triumph. Switzerland's Ramona Rieder finished sixth.
Women's podium from left: Maja Betz, Merle Brunnée and Nelly Rassmann
Swiss victories over the short distance
Iwan Hasler from Aargau took victory in the short distance race (10 km run / 50 km bike / 5 km run). Among other things, he benefited from the fact that the initial leader and Swiss duathlete of the year 2023, Andrea Alagona, took a wrong turn on the Heitern and thus caught a longer final stretch. Only shortly after Hasler, Joel Graber from Bern and Stefan Ging from Zofingen crossed the finish line in second and third place. Anna Zehnder from Seeland triumphed in the women's short distance. She had already won the Powersprint Performance on Saturday and had a perfect Powerman weekend. Jannine Köppel from the Bernese Oberland finished in second place, one minute behind. Third on the podium was Martina Süess from Zug.
Positive conclusion
Even though the weather didn't quite play along towards the end of the race on Sunday and heavy rain poured down, organising committee president Stefan Ruf drew a positive balance: ‘With around 500 participants on Sunday, we achieved our goal,’ said Ruf, adding: ‘Unfortunately, the weather conditions were rather difficult for the athletes and some had to give up the race. At least Zofingen was spared thunderstorms on Sunday evening. Experience Day on Saturday Around 250 participants took part in the Powerman Experience Day on Saturday. This was the same number of participants as last year. On what was probably the last real summer day of the year, children and youngsters fought fierce duels for victory on Experience Day. The races were full of atmosphere and went off without incident. As last year, the Powerman Arena with the start and finish area was located on the Schützenwiese.
Text: Christof Gerber
Pictures: Manuel and Anton Geisser
The ranking lists can be found in the appendix and at https://www.datasport.com/de/
More information:
Homepage: www.powerman.swiss
Powerman Zofingen on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PowermanZofingen
The next Powerman Zofingen will take place on 6/7 September 2025.
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