Against the impressive backdrop of the Danish capital, Tim Berkel and Rebekah Keat won the first Challenge Copenhagen, and the Scandinavian local heroes also had reason to celebrate.
What a premiere! On Saturday torrential rain – in fact the heaviest in Denmark for more than 50 years - flooded parts of the bike course. Then, on Sunday thousands of volunteers, fans and athletes celebrated an unbelievable race with a finish under a bright blue sky.
Tim Berkel (AUS) was the first to cross the finish line in front of the Danish Parliament after 8:07:39 hours. He had been the sixth out of water at Amager beach, so he still had to catch up with the leading ones on the first bike lap, but in transition II the man from down under already had a 2:58 minutes lead over his competitor Tommy Nielson. The second Danish athlete, Jens Gronbek, followed only 3 minutes later. Berkel did the marathon in a respectable 2:46:54, so the others were not able to catch up with him any more. But the local heroes narrowly missed out on a double podium position for Denmark, since Keegan Williams from New Zealand (8:15:52) came in second after the Australian. In the end, the strongest Danish athlete of the day, Jens Gronbek, finished third (8:17:34).
In the women’s competition, Danish athlete Lisbeth Kristensen had been counted among the favourites, but in the end she was not able to reach a top 3 position on the demanding bike course in spite of her home advantage. However, Rebekah Keat again had a perfect day. She was second out of water after Hillary Biscay. And although Keat fell off the bike at the beginning of the first lap, she proved that she is a real world-class athlete all along the remaining bike leg. Rebekah Keat, who had finished second in the Challenge Roth, started the final marathon with a huge lead of 16 minutes over her compatriot Belinda Granger. And the 125,000 spectators along the run course helped her to even increase her lead. When she finally reached the finish line in front of the Parliament in a tremendous 8:54:36 hours, Keat had a lead of more than 20 minutes over Belinda Granger (9:15:25), who also had problems on the bike, since she had to do the last 10 kilometers with a flat on her back tire. Camilla Lindholm from Sweden reached a surprising third place in 9:26:55.
In spite of the capricious weather and a flat tire Belinda Granger and Rebekah Keat have decided that they will come back! “I have done some marathons, but this here in Copenhagen was the best!”, Granger paid a compliment to the Danish spectators. And Rebekah Keat put it as simple as that: “I love Copenhagen!”.
