Rüst C.A., Knechtle B., Knechtle P., Lepers R., Rosemann T., Onywera V.
Institute of General Practice and for Health Services Research, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland; Gesundheitszentrum, St. Gallen, Switzerland; INSERM U1093, University of Dijon, Dijon, France; Department of Exercise and Sports Science, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
Rüst, C.A., Institute of General Practice and for Health Services Research, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland; Knechtle, B., Gesundheitszentrum, St. Gallen, Switzerland; Knechtle, P., Gesundheitszentrum, St. Gallen, Switzerland; Lepers, R., INSERM U1093, University of Dijon, Dijon, France; Rosemann, T., Institute of General Practice and for Health Services Research, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland; Onywera, V., Department of Exercise and Sports Science, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
We investigated the participation and performance trends of ultra-endurance triathletes from all nationalities competing in a Double Iron ultra-triathlon (7.6-km swim, 360-km cycle and 84.4-km run) from 1985 to 2010. A total of 1854 athletes participated in 92 Double Iron ultra-triathlons. The majority of the winners came from Europe with 72 victories, followed by North America with 17 victories. The race time for the European ultra-triathletes was 1340 (s=95.3) min, decreasing highly significantly (r2=0.28; P<0.0001) across the years. North American ultra-triathletes finished the races within 1556 (s=124.5) min; their race time showed no changes across the years (r2=0.045; P=0.07). The race time for the Europeans was highly significantly faster compared to the North Americans (P<0.0001). Future studies should investigate each country in Europe and North America in order to find the country with the largest participation of athletes and their best performance. © 2014 Copyright European College of Sport Science.