Katja Schumacher and Norman Stadler won the Moenchshof Triathlon (German National Championships 70.3) this weekend. Katja Schumacher is therefore German National Champion 2008, while Timo Bracht (second behind Norman in the race) won the title for the men, because of a late application from Norman.
While the men’s race was decide after the bike and Norman ran to win with a 5min gap in front of Timo, the woman’s race ended up being very exciting. Katja finished the bike 2:40min behind Nina Novakova, an athlete from Tchekeslovakia, and ended up catching her with 5 miles to go after a 4 hour chase.
“I had a horrible swim, my arms just did not want to move and couldn’t make up much time on the bike, but I had no idea, who the athlete in the lead was, I wanted to win the race and the National Championship title, so I kept chasing," said Katja. Katja said she was happy with the win, but didn’t find her rhythm until the run.
She will have one weekend off, before traveling to Ironman Nice, where her goal is to win and qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.