That Challenge Almere-Amsterdam has actually regularly ranked amongst the fastest races worldwide recently is popular, specifically thanks to the course records set by Menno Koolhaas (7:36:36, 2023) and Marlene de Boer (8:22:30, 2024). That the race has actually ended up being as much as an hour much faster in 11 years, in both males's and ladies's occasions, reveals even more what advancements professional athletes are going through nowadays.
In 2013, Challenge Almere-Amsterdam was won by Belgian Bart Colpaert, who crossed the goal in 8:34:50. That year the females's race was won by German Susan Blatt, who crossed the line after 9:24:40. In the guys's race, things in fact got much faster every year after that, completing above 8 hours just in 2014, 2015 and 2016. This was followed by Joe Skipper (7:59:39, 2017), Jaroslav Kovacic (7:55:43, 2018), Matt Trautman (7:50:15, 2019), Kristian Hogenhaug (7:37:46, 2021), Kieran Lindars (7:55:44, 2022), Menno Koolhaas (7:36:36) and last weekend Jesper Svensson (7:41:26) as winners, all under 8 hours.
Whereas Suzan Blatt won the females's race in 2013, this was followed by triumphes for Heleen bij de Vaate, Kathrin Walther and Camille Deligny who completed above the wonderful nine-hour mark for ladies from 2014 to 2016. This was followed by 3 triumphes for Yvonne van Vlerken, who dived listed below that nine-hour mark in both 2017 and 2019 (8:51:13 and 8:56:10) however stayed simply one 2nd above 9 hours in 2018. Sarissa de Vries then tape-recorded a magnificent 8:32:04 in 2021, however the list below year Katharina Wolff crossed the goal much slower with a finishing time of 9:10:10. Els Visser (8:36:24) and Marlene de Boer (8:22:30) made sure to select up the rate once again in 2023 and 2024.
