Steffen Haak comes 5th in his age group in the Ironman World Championship on 10th October 2009 in Hawaii

It is a pleasure for us to celebrate with Steffen Haak his grand success at this year's Ironman Hawaii contest where he came 5th in his age group. Steffen is studying for his doctorate at the FZI Research Center in Karlsruhe. Lindenbaum Gmbh sponsored the Karlsruhe scientist in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. If you read his Blog (http://blog.steffenhaak.de) you will find out that apart from sponsorship - and of course a good physical condition and plenty of training - he could also have done with a cold shower and a fresh pair of dry running shoes every few kilometres.

Steffen was born in 1982 and studied industrial engineering at Karlsruhe University. He joined the university's sport club and started training there for triathlons and soon became Germany's top amateur athlete in this discipline.
Steffen's doctorate at the FZI Research Center is in the design, organisation and technical implementation of new electronic markets in Internet. Amongst his sponsors is Lindenbaum GmbH, a member of the the circle of small and middle sized enterprises, networked together at the FZI. Dr Ralf Nikolai, managing director of Lindenbaum GmbH, is a former employee of the FZI. Lindenbaum split from disy Informationssysteme GmbH, which in turn was a spin-off of the FZI. Dr Nikolai, himself an enthusiastic amateur runner, understands Steffen's commitment to high performance sport: "This competition is an enormous physical and mental challenge. Whoever is prepared to face such a challenge displays an incredible will to win. We like sponsoring a scientist who is willing to go to the utmost limits, for sport as well." The FZI also supports its member of staff by giving him the freedom he needs to train.

For Ironman, the greatest stamina test in the world, athletes must take part in special qualifying competitions. The Ironman contest comprises a 3.8 km swim, a 180 km cycle ride and a 42 km run - all part of a single competition  with no breaks in between. These are the basic four requirements of a triathlon.
Steffen described it as the hardest race of his life, which is what Craig  Alexander, the overall winner, also said. Congratulations, Steffen: we're proud of you!