Status: 09.10.2022 02:27
The new Ironman World Champion comes from Norway and is called Gustav Iden. The triathlete wins in Hawaii with a new course record. Veteran Sebastian Kienle finished sixth in his farewell performance.
Gustav Iden became Ironman World Champion with a splendid race. After swimming 3.8 kilometers, cycled 180 kilometers and a marathon, the Norwegian surprised French runner-up Sam Laidlow and won with a new record of 7:40:24 hours. In doing so, he left behind favorite fellow countryman Kristian Blummenfelt, who finished third.
“It was so incredibly difficult. In the last few kilometers the island really tried to bring me down,” said winner Iden. “It was truly epic.”
The best German was Sebastian Kienle in sixth place, who once again set an exclamation point with his last race in Hawaii. Former world champion Patrick Lange, like Florian Angert, was penalized while cycling and therefore was no longer able to fight for the top positions.
Penalties for Lange and Angert
When swimming at the start of the biggest triathlon event of the year, no preliminary decision was made. 19 athletes came out of the water together in a large group led by Angert and Laidlow. Lange, out of the group, also had a good starting position with a lead of less than 1:30 minutes.
But German hopes ended abruptly on the bike ride. Both Lange and Angert, who was well on offense, broke the rules of the slipstream and had to go into the penalty area for five minutes. So they both fell far behind, had to move to weaker groups and wasted a lot of time. Things went much better for Kienle, who continued to recover and started the marathon in eighth place.
Laidlow keeps it exciting until just before the end
However, the second discipline was dominated by someone else, namely the Frenchman Laidlow. The 23-year-old broke the Hawaii cycling record by over four minutes and started the final marathon with a clear advantage over two Norwegian favorites Iden and Blummenfelt.
And if you thought Laidlow had used up all of her energy on this record, you were wrong. The young man withstood the attacks of the Norwegians up to kilometer 35 before Iden finally took him. Favorite Blummenfelt, who had already won the rescheduled World Cup since 2021 in Utah in May, was no longer able to keep up with the pace of the eventual world champion. No wonder: in addition to the course record, Iden also improved the marathon record in Kona with 2:36:15.
Long in the top ten
Behind him, Kienle also showed a great performance on the track and finished sixth behind Iden, Laidlow, Blummenfelt, the surprisingly strong Australian Max Neumann and Britain’s Joe Skipper. Patrick Lange’s performance is also noteworthy: the 2017 and 2018 world champion ran a top marathon and thus climbed back to tenth place.
Those: sportschau.de
