Faris Al-Sultan

0 Faris Al-Sultan
Faris Al-Sultan at Ironman 70.3 Austria (2012)
Personal information
Date of birth	21st January 1978 (age 42)
place of birth	Munich , Germany
size	181 cm
Weight	72 kg
societies
2013-2015	pewag racing team
successes
2000, 2004, 2006	3 × German champion triathlon long distance
2002	German champion triathlon middle distance
2005-2013	7 × Ironman winner
2005	Winner Ironman World Championship
2011	Winner Ironman European Championship
status
Resigned in 2015

Faris Al-Sultan (born January 21, 1978 in Munich ) is a former German triathlete who is now active as a trainer. In 2005 he became the third German to win the Ironman Hawaii . He is included in the best list of German triathletes on the Ironman distance .

Athletic career

As a 16-year-old Faris Al-Sultan ran his first marathon in 1994 - with falsified age information because according to the officially applicable rules he was still too young to take on a 42.195-kilometer run.

First triathlon start in 1996

He completed his first triathlon in 1996 and 1997 at the age of 19, his first Ironman on Lanzarote , because the minimum age for long-distance triathletes in Germany was 21 years old. He took part in the Ironman Hawaii for the first time as an amateur in 1999 and finished third in his age group.

German triathlon champion 2000

In 2000 in Kulmbach he won the German long distance championship for the first time in 8:22 hours. In 2001 Faris Al-Sultan finished second at the Ironman Brazil and reached a 27th place at the Ironman Hawaii. In 2002 he became German champion in the middle distance in Immenstadt and then stated that this was the last longer competition for the time being with a view to qualifying for the Olympic Games in Athens. In the end he changed his mind and qualified again for Hawaii via Ironman Canada, but still finished third in preparation for the European Cup at Schliersee. In 2003 he finished seventh at the Ironman Hawaii.

In 2004 he managed to beat the magical eight-hour mark at Challenge Roth ; as the fastest German he was again German champion in the long distance. In addition, Faris Al-Sultan won the Half-Ironman St. Croix in 2004 (2 km swimming, 90 km cycling and 21.1 km running) and took third place at the Ironman Hawaii.

Winner Ironman World Championship 2005

In 2005, Faris Al-Sultan in Arizona won a race over the full long distance (3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42.195 km running) organized under license from the commercial Ironman brand for the first time . Al-Sultan won the Ironman Hawaii in 2005 as the most balanced participant in his third participation as a professional in 8:14:17 h in front of Cameron Brown from New Zealand and the three-time winner Peter Reid from Canada. After Thomas Hellriegel (1997) and Normann Stadler (2004), he was the third German to win this competition.

In the 2006 season, Faris Al-Sultan started in Port Elizabeth at the Ironman South Africa on March 19 and finished the race in fifth place. At the Ironman Hawaii, Faris Al-Sultan was third behind Normann Stadler and Chris McCormack with a time of 8:19:04 h . He finished the Challenge Roth on July 2nd behind the Australian Chris McCormack and thus became German champion over the long distance triathlon (Ironman distance) as in 2004. He also won the Kraichgau Triathlon Festival over the M distance (2/60/14), the middle distance triathlon in Saalfelden , Austria , the Nibelungen Triathlon in Xanten and the Xentis Triathlon over the sprint distance in Maria Lankowitz (Austria) decide.

Ironman Germany 2011 in Frankfurt: Last round, at the BG clinic

Faris Al-Sultan at the VOX “Eternal Heroes” press conference in December 2015

In 2007, Al-Sultan again won the Kraichgau Triathlon Festival over the M distance (2 km swimming, 60 km cycling and 14 km running). Al-Sultan had to cancel his planned start at the Ironman in Hawaii the morning before the competition due to illness. In 2008 he started at Ironman Malaysia and achieved his third overall victory in an Ironman - with a finishing time of 8:34:42 h. At Ironman 70.3 in St. Croix on the American Virgin Islands, he reached fourth place and he won the Ironman 70.3 Germany in Wiesbaden in 4:10:26 h.

Faris Al-Sultan was not regarded as a tactician, but as someone who liked to take the competition into their own hands, accepting brief physical break-ins and having the talent to recover very quickly. Faris Al-Sultan had the right to start for the Triathlon Team Witten . In spring 2009 Faris Al-Sultan founded the Abu Dhabi Triathlon Team , which existed until the beginning of 2013. Also present were Ina Reinders , Andreas Böcherer and Andrea stein mug .

In August 2010 he achieved his fourth Ironman victory in Regensburg ahead of his teammate Andreas Böcherer .

Winner Ironman European Championship 2011

On July 24, 2011, he won the Ironman Germany (European Championship) in Frankfurt. On July 1st, 2012 he won the Ironman Austria and celebrated his sixth Ironman victory. In May 2013 Faris won the Ironman on Lanzarote in 8:42:40 h - almost ten minutes ahead of the runner-up, the Spaniard Miquel Blanchart . During the European Ironman Championships in Frankfurt it became known that Faris Al-Sultan would be competing for the Austrian pewag racing team of the chain manufacturer pewag up to and including 2015 .

On May 18, 2015, he declared his professional career over. He now wanted to take care of his family more. He ended his active career in August 2015 with fifth place in the Allgäu Triathlon . Faris Al-Sultan started in June 2018 as a team with Thomas Hellriegel on the Tour Transalp .

From 2018 to September 2020, Al-Sultan is the national coach of the German Triathlon Association ( DTU ).

He is active as a coach and trains u. a. Carolin Lehrieder , Johann Ackermann and the Danish Maja Stage Nielsen ; from 2015 to 2019 he also trained Patrick Lange , who won the Ironman Hawaii twice during this time.

Private

Al-Sultan's father Talib came to Germany from Iraq in 1958 . His mother Lydia comes from Munich, where the father works as the head of a translation agency. Faris Al-Sultan attended the Munich / Moosach high school . He studied history and culture of the Middle East at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , but dropped out of the course due to the double workload caused by competitive sport.

His son was born in April 2014, he has been married to the former triathlete Ina Reinders (* 1979) since November 2014 and their daughter was born in January 2016.

In February 2016, Al-Sultan took part in the show Eternal Heroes of the TV channel VOX with other former world-class athletes .

Sporting successes

(DNF - Did Not Finish )

Awards

• 2004, 2005 Munich's sportsman of the year in the evening newspaper
• 2005 Sportsman of the Month for October from the German Sports Aid Foundation
• 2005 Bambi in the sport category
• 2005 5th in the election for athlete of the year
• 2005 Performance of the year by the Californian magazine Competitor
• 2007 Bavarian Sports Prize in the "Ambassador of Bavarian Sports" category

Publications

• with Christoph Dirkes: Triathlon. Motivation - competition - experience. From the right entry to a successful finish. Südwest, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-517-08283-7

Web links

Commons : Faris Al-Sultan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Faris Al-Sultan
• Profile for Faris Al-Sultan at the Institute for Applied Training Science , accessed on August 23, 2014
• Faris Al-Sultan's profile and results in the ITU database at Triathlon.org , accessed on April 28, 2020 (English).
• Triathlon: Bayer Faris Al-Sultan triumphs in Hawaii. In: Stern.de . 17th October 2015. 
• Steffen Gerth: Hawaii winner Al-Sultan: World's best fair-weather athlete. In: Spiegel Online . October 16, 2005 . 
• Thomas Hahn: Faris Al-Sultan - German Ironman winner and Munich local patriot. In: süddeutsche.de . May 17, 2010 . 
• Faris al-Sultan. In: Sportwelt Verlag . March 2011(interview). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DM middle distance 2002 in Immenstadt . In: 3athlon.de . July 8, 2002. Archived from the original on July 8, 2004.
2. ↑ Faris Al-Sultan starts Tri Team Abu Dhabi , April 5, 2009
3. ↑ Abu Dhabi Triathlon Team - Authorities stop Al-Sultan's caravan , January 22, 2013
4. ↑ Faris Al Sultan declares immediate retirement from professional triathlon sport (May 19, 2015)
5. ↑ Ex-triathletes at the Everyman's Race - Ironman World Champions Al-Sultan and Hellriegel start at TOUR Transalp 2018 (June 6, 2018)
6. ↑ Trainer Faris Al-Sultan on the Ironman - "You can't just shoot through it" (October 10, 2019)
7. ↑ DTU AND FEDERAL TRAINER FARIS AL-SULTAN SEPARATE (May 18, 2020)
8. ↑ My 2017: Faris Al-Sultan - Active despite retirement from competitive sports (February 2, 2017)
9. ↑ Ralf Weitbrecht: Triathlete Faris Al-Sultan: "You need fear in your neck". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . October 15, 2006, accessed October 15, 2018 . 
10. ↑ H. Eggebrecht: Marriage: Faris Al-Sultan and Ina Reinders said I do. In: tri2b.com. November 10, 2014, accessed October 15, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Eternal Heroes: Candidates. In: VOX . Archived from the original on March 7, 2016 ; accessed on October 15, 2018 . 
12. ↑ Allgaeu-Triathlon: Sebastian Kienle wins, Faris Al-Sultan celebrates a big farewell (August 16, 2015)
13. ↑ Triathlon Ingolstadt 2015: Bittner and Möller win, Van Vlerken dominates half distance (June 14, 2015)
14. ↑ Ironman 70.3 Rügen: Michael Raelert wins again (September 14, 2014)
15. ↑ Frankfurt City Triathlon 2014 (August 3, 2014)
16. ↑ Kienle wins, newcomer Angert surprised (August 4, 2013)
17. ↑ Faris Al-Sultan the measure of all things
18. ↑ Faris Al-Sultan + Jenny Schulz win 1st Sylt Triathlon
19. ↑ Third Day of the Days of Truth - The Sultan takes the title
20. ^ The stars light up for the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore
21. ↑ Ironman 70.3 UK: Faris Al-Sultan fourth
22. ↑ Laguna Phuket Triathlon 2007 ( Memento from February 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
23. ^ Estedt and Al-Sultan German middle distance champions ( Memento from July 15, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
24. ↑ 74 Pros Accept Ironman World Championship Slots. Accessed January 2, 2020 .  (August 14, 2014)
25. ↑ Frederik van Lierde steals the show from the top guys
26. ↑ Kai Baumgartner: Abu Dhabi International Triathlon: rendezvous of the Ironman stars in the land of the sheikhs . In: 3athlon.de . March 10, 2010. Archived from the original on March 13, 2010.
27. ^ Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe: "Sportsman of the Month" October 2005 ( Memento from October 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )