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Rutger Beke, from Belgium, is known both nationally and internationally
as an excellent professional triathlete. Thanks to his persistence and 10
years of hard training work, Rutger now belongs to the world top of long
distance triathlon.
Rutger started his career in 1995 at age 17. In 2002, at age 25, he
managed to reach the international top, thanks to a bronze medal in the
World Championship Long Distance in Nice. Another 18 months later he
finished second as a rookie in the Ironman Hawaii 2003.
In 2004 he confirms with a 5th place in Hawaii, but the next 11 months he
is kept away from racing because of false accusations of doping use. On
August 9 2005 the Belgian Court finally declares Rutger not guilty, after
seeing evidence from the universities of Leuven and Ghent, which proves
that the EPO doping test of WADA does not work properly in Rutger's case
and that he can get false-positive test results. During all these
difficult months, Rutger not only kept fighting the false accusations, but
he also continued his training program like a real pro.
That helps him a lot to win the half Ironman Monaco on September 4 2005,
his return into the competition. 6 weeks later he finishes in the
TOP-5 of the World Championship in Hawaii for the third consecutive year
with a fourth place.
The 2006 season starts on a bad note with an injury during training camp
in South Africa, forcing Rutger to stop all running for 8 full weeks. The
Marc Herremans classic in Antwerp (July) becomes his first race of the
year. He finishes second. In September he wants to renew his victory of
the last year. Rutger is well on his way to do exactly that, but then he
falls 20km away from the bike finish and has to DNF because of bike
problems. In Hawaii though he is doing quite well, finishing fourth again.
2007 starts marvelously: Rutger claims his first Ironman victory in
Arizona. But afterwards he has to skip some planned races due a knee
injury. Despite his problems , he starts in Hawaii. Of course his
preparation has not been good, so he finishes 811th in more than 5 hours,
after walking almost the full marathon.
2008 becomes a season without real peaks, but with an excellent
performance in Hawaii. Rutger becomes 3rd and finishes in the Hawaii top-5
for the fifth time in his career.
At the beginning of the 2009 season, Rutger catches the
Cytomegalo-virus (CMV). This forces him to two months
of full rest, without any training. He has to skip quite some races, but
can restart the season in the Marc Herremens classic. The next race is in
Knokke, the usual preparation race, just ahead of Hawaii. However, jumping
on his bike after the swim, Rutger falls and is severely injured in
his left foot. He his brought to the hospital and operated on for
about 90 minutes. He recovers quickly from the injury,but has to skip
Hawaii, due to a lack of preparation. Since he now needs to requalify for
Hawaii 2010, he starts in the inaugural Ironman of Cozumel (Mexico) held
end November and claims his second Ironman victory.
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