Africa Triathlon

The event began with a picture perfect dive start into Lake Alster in the middle   of Hamburg, with the streets filled with thousand of local spectators. Julie   Diben from Britain moved to the front for the 2 lap 1500m swim, followed by Lucie Zelenkova of the Czech Republic and Joelle Franzmann of Germany. It was   Tereza Macel, racing under the ITU flag while a country of residence issue is   resolved, who was first out of the swim and through transition. Dittmer held   a good position through the swim to exit in 5th place, then joined up with 20   other women as the lead group for the 8-lap 40km cycle section.

Italian teammates, Silvia Gemignani, Nadia Cortassa and Giunia Chenevier, went   to work at the front of the lead pack in an effort to pull away from the chase   pack led by Emma Carney of Australia and Beatrice Lanza of Italy, which was   just over a minute back after the swim. But is was not enough to hold off the   chase group with a powerful Emma Carney at the front reeling in the leaders,   and their lead slowly evaporated. By the end of the bike the two groups had   joined together and stormed through transition with the energy of a hurricane.

Anja Dittmer maintained her position in the lead group and was 4th onto the   run course, which sent a thunder of applause and cheers through the streets   of Hamburg.

As the 3-lap 10km run settled down, a group of 6 emerged as the podium contenders   along with Dittmer: the Australian-born Kate Allen, who has been living in Austria   for the last 3 years, Nadia Cortassa and Beatrice Lanza, the Italian teammates   who have been making a name for themselves this year, Michelle Dillon of Britain,   the perennial favourite and Scotland’s Stephanie Forrester, having her first   strong performance since the Sydney Olympic Games.

In the end, it was Kate Allen who had the race of her life forcing a showdown   with Dittmer over the final lap and into the finish. But on this day the energy   from the crowd gave Dittmer that extra nudge to take the win by a 3 second sliver   of time over Allen. Nadia Cortassa was 3rd a further 9 seconds back.Anja Dittmer’s   win couldn’t have been a more perfect ending for the thousands of enthusiastic   fans who lined the course, and for Anja’s road to Athens 2004!