The annual, multi-sports, full-throttle Red Bull Dolomitenman event took place in Lienz, Austria on Saturday 9 September 2023. This edition was the first in the competition’s 36-year history in which women could participate.
The competition draws top-level athletes from the sports of trail running, paragliding, mountain biking and kayaking, who compete in relay teams of four in professional or amateur categories.
Of the 112 teams who took part this year, eight were women-only and a handful were mixed. Eli Egger was the pilot in the all-women Red Bull Ladies team. She wrote on Facebook that it had been a great event overall, and was a “step towards” equality, adding that “90% of people were happy to have women on board”.
She was disappointed at the lack of a women’s podium or share of the prize money. “We watched 10 men’s team walking up on the podium, getting quite nice prize money and rewards, and not even the best ladies’ team was worth a single penny.”
Race director Nikolaus Grissmann explained: “The rules for the 2023 Dolomitenmann are that the prizes are awarded to the five fastest professional teams – with no separate classification for women’s teams. We are always looking for new ways to improve this event and we will look at this question again for next year”.
The winning team finished in four hours and six minutes. The fastest pilots to complete the paragliding section were Aaron Durogati (00:25:33.6), Tobias Grossrubatscher (00:26:44.5) and Thomas Friedrich (00:27:06.5). All three were flying Nova’s new Bantam 2.
Nova said ten pre-production Bantam 2s in size 12 were finished in time and available to top athletes, all of whom tested it and opted to fly it in the event: Eli Egger, Tamara Lunger, Aaron Durogati, Tobi Grossrubatscher, Thomas Friedrich, Christian Moser, Sascha Assmair, Martin Stofner, Chrigel Maurer and Patrick von Känel. “Praise was given for the flatter polar curve, more stability and the slightly easier take-off characteristics”, Nova said.
RESULTS
Kolland Topsport Future
Professionals
- Kolland Topsport Future (Philemon Ombogo-Kiriago, Martin Stofner, Hector-Leonardo Paez-Leon, Martin Unterthurner)
- Elk (Henri Aymonod, Aaron Durogati, Andreas Seewald, Gerhard Schmid
Professional) - Kolland Topsport professional (Patrick Kipngeno, Chrigel Maurer, Martin Stosek, Lukas Kubrican)
HPS Innovation & Grandhotel Lienz
Amateurs
- HPS Innovation & Grandhotel Lienz, 11th overall (Lukas Hollaus, Markus Anders, Uwe Hochenwarter, Tilmann Röller)
- ASS Brno Create & Assets, 12th overall (Milan Janata, Tomas Matera, Marek Rauchfuss, Pavel Srbecky)
- Pensino Filoun, 13th overall (Michal Smahel, Josef Sourek, Tomas Moravek, Jan Sindelar)
Women-Only TEAMS
Kolland Topsport Energy
- Kolland Topsport Energy, 34th overall (Andrea Mayr, Lisa Fässler, Lejla Njemcevic, Anna Faber)
- Sport Auer 4 Angels, 38th overall (Johanna Hiemer, Elisabeth Kofler, Irina Lützlschwab, Sophia Schmidt)
- Red Bull Ladies, 52nd overall (Severine Petersen, Elisabeth Egger, Katazina Sonsa, Nouria Newman)
