POWERMAN NEWS

The glamorous Night of Duathlon – the Oscars of the Swiss duathlon scene, so to speak – took place for the first time in the Zofingen venue Auso. All Swiss duathletes who achieved a podium finish at international championships in 2024 were honored. The winners of the “Duathlete of the year” awards were also announced. Several dance performances, a recorded interview with Olympic silver medalist Julie Derron and a talk about the importance of artificial intelligence in endurance sports framed the gala.

Around 80 people gathered last Thursday evening at the Zofingen event venue Auso to celebrate last year’s Swiss duathlon successes and look ahead to the coming season. The winners of the Duathlete of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards were determined by public online voting in advance. In the men’s category, Andrea Alagona from Ticino was named duathlete of the year for the second time in a row. The 24-year-old narrowly won the vote ahead of Jens-Michael Gossauer, who achieved the best Swiss result at the long-distance world championships at the Powerman Zofingen 2024 with his bronze medal. Olivia Keiser was named women’s duathlete of the year for the first time. The Zug native finished third on the podium at last year’s European Middle Distance Championships in Alsdorf, Germany. She also won the short-distance race at the Powerman Zofingen 2023. Speaking of short distance – the winner of this year’s men’s short distance race in Zofingen, Iwan Hasler, was named Rookie of the Year.

Julie Derron and her Olympic triumph

The surprise guest would have been none other than Julie Derron. However, the Olympic silver medal winner in triathlon was unable to attend in person due to a training trip to China at short notice. In a recorded video interview, the Zurich triathlete talked about her experiences at the Olympic Games in Paris, among other things. In response to the discussion that the Olympic triathlon race had almost been held as a duathlon without swimming due to the dirty Seine, Derron said that she would have been ready for it and that it would not have changed anything in the race preparation. She is continuing to focus on triathlon, so a start at the Powerman Zofingen is out of the question for the next few years. Her long-term goal is the Ironman Hawaii.

Powerman as a World Cup Series?

In his speech, the OC President of the Powerman Zofingen, Stefan Ruf, took the opportunity to look back on the 2024 edition and discuss the short and medium-term future of the sporting event. The Powerman Zofingen 2024 aroused the interest of the TV audience. Around 100,000 people watched the long-distance World Championship races live on the S1 and Tele M1 channels. The video clip of the decision in the women’s race (Melanie Maurer’s task) received over 50,000 views on social media. Preparations for this year’s Powerman Zofingen (September 6 and 7) are now in full swing, explained the OC President. On the Powerman Saturday there will be a 5000-meter run for the first time. Ruf also outlined his vision of a Powerman World Cup Series. Ideally, six Powerman duathlons should be part of this new race series from 2026 – including Zofingen, of course.

Increasing importance of AI in endurance sports

Between the various parts of the program at the Night of Duathlon, the Zofingen dance group “The Art of Generations” delighted the audience with their show interludes. Dr. Oliver Klaus (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sportsparadise AG) and Stefan Lombriser (CEO of Quevita AG) took part in the panel discussion on the topic of AI in endurance sports. Dr. Oliver Klaus explained that the use of artificial intelligence in endurance sports is still in its infancy. In future, mental as well as physical data will be used. For example, models of the regeneration process are interesting. Stefan Lombriser allayed the fears of those present that AI will make the transparent athlete a reality. An AI program could not replace the head of an athlete. His company has developed a performance curve with AI. This allows the performance capacity to be calculated even for light training sessions. Thanks to such a program, actual performance diagnostics are no longer necessary.

Text: Christof Gerber
Photos: Manuel Geisser

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