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Two of triathlon's brightest stars will top the professional field for the eighth running of the Quelle Challenge Roth on July 12 in the triathlon-mad hamlet of Roth, Germany. Headlining top-flight fields in the men's and women's races will be Great Britain's Chrissie Wellington, the defending Ironman world champion and recent winner of Ironman Australia, and Germany's Normann Stadler, a two-time winner of the Ironman world title.

Stadler, who has also won an Ironman title at home at Ironman Germany in Frankfurt, will find himself up against a deep field that includes the Quelle Challenge Roth's top three from last year: defending champion Patrick Vernay of New Caledonia, second-place finisher Pete Jacobs of Australia and third-place finisher Torbjorn Sindballe of Denmark. Also toeing the line will be Belgium's Rutger Beke, third at the Ironman World Championships last year; Challenge Wanaka winner Chris McDonald of Australia; multiple Ironman winner Raynard Tissink of South Africa; Ironman Western Australia winner Tim Berkel and Estonia's Ain-Alar Juhanson, winner of Ironman Lanzarote.

The field also includes Australia's Justin Granger, Petr Vabrousek of the Czech Republic, Canada's Luke Dragstra and speedy firefighter Margus Tamm along with a strong German contingent including Michael Gohner, Steffen Liebetrau, Alexander Taubert, Kai Hundertmark, Olaf Sabatschus, Clemens Coenen, Bernd Eichhorn, Michi Hofmann, Dorian Wagner and the legendary Thomas Hellriegel.

The women's field is shaping up to be the strongest outside of the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. Wellington, whose relatively new Ironman career has gone from strength to strength, said she also will try to take a tilt at the world-best time, lowered to 8:45:48 in Roth last year by Yvonne van Vlerken of the Netherlands. But to stand atop the podium she'll first have to contend with a start list that includes last year's second-place finisher, Hungary's Erika Csomor, whose 8:47:05 also dipped under the old record set by Paula Newby-Fraser in Roth in 1994.

The field also includes two-time Challenge Wanaka winner Gina Ferguson, who recently also took out Ironman New Zealand; former Quelle Challenge Roth champion and multiple Ironman winner Belinda Granger; multiple Ironman New Zealand winner (and former Roth champion) Joanna Lawn of New Zealand; American Hillary Biscay; the UK's Leanda Cave; Australia's Charlotte Paul and Germany's Dagmar Matthes und Christine Waitz.

In all, some 2,500 individual competitors and 500 teams from 50 nations will start the classic event.

For more information, please visit the Quelle Challenge Roth website at www.challenge-roth.de.