Wow! What a race!
After 9 hours and 10 minutes Red Bull Ironman – Jonas Colting & Gordon Byrn – finished barely three minutes ahead of SAF/MHS K – Johan Hasselmark & Daniel Hansson – from the Swedish Armed Forces. The whole way from the start they battled neck to neck trying to get ahead of the other. SAF/ MHS K won the Red Bull Sprint Prize and Red Bull Ironman won the Addnature.com Sprint Prize and so it was throughout the race. The winner was truly undecided until the last run on Utö. So exciting! Last years 3rd place finishers – FM Swimmers – managed to cross the line as undisputed third this year again, even this an astonishing feat as they were 10 minutes late in the start as the had forgotten their swim glasses somewhere. Yet the groveled back and pulled in third. Well done!
In the womens race – Team Desperate – showed again that they are unbelievably strong, 9th overall and well ahead of the rest of the pack. Huge respect to Annie and Åsa! They together with Jonas Colting very well deserved the TV4 “morning soffa” the next morning – 6 minutes of fame. Second this year was San Diego Lifeguards.
This year we had a total of 11 mixed teams that started the race – fantastic – we are very pleased about this development. In this very strong field Puppy Triathlete Society – Rebecca Nordholm & Johan Nyqvist – did a near perfect race and won ahead of Linköpings Simidrottsförening and Garmin Adventure from Finland.
We are very pleased about the growing number of international teams – This year we had teams that started from the USA, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Australia and Sweden. A total of 10 nations. Hopefully we can continue our international expansion.
The development of ÖTILLÖ is looking good. Last year we had 58 teams that started, this year we had 77. We were a bit concerned about how many teams would finish as we had removed the bike on Ornö and replaced it with a solid 17km run. However, the athletes proved they had prepared very well and we had about 75% of all teams finish at Utö Värdshus. Now the teams have proven that we have done the right thing and that we now have the toughest Aquathlon in the world.
Yet again our staff, boat drivers and water safety organization proved to be working like well-oiled machinery. Mats and my thoughts really go out to them as they make this race possible.
Now we have a little less than a year to make some minor changes here and there to further improve the race, the safety and the whole experience. No, we will not raise the entry fee for 2011:-)
Thank you racers, sponsors, staff, boat drivers, friends and family for your support. ÖTILLÖ would not work without you!
See you in Sandhamn on September 4th 2011. RACE DAY: September 5th, 2011
Train smart,
Michael Lemmel & Mats Andersson
ÖTILLÖ