The men took to the stage on Saturday and had a tough task ahead to follow the women’s race that delivered lots of excitement. All eyes were on the Norwegian duo of Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt to see if they had recovered from Kona in time to battle it out once again.
Swim
Coming into the race I was unsure if there would be much separation on the swim as we have seen the top swimmers preserve energy in previous races. However Ben Kanute, Marc Dubrick and Aaron Royle were straight to the front setting the pace. They managed to get a gap early but there was still a big stream of athletes chasing.
Royle seemed to take a wrong turn at one point but was able to bridge back to Kanute and Dubrick. He proceeded to lead out the swim alongside Dubrick, with Kanute falling slightly back. Then came a stream of 12 athletes around 20-30 seconds back, including Miki Taagholt, Mika Noodt, Frederic Funk and Kristian Blummefelt.
Gustav Iden and Magnus Ditlev came out close together and only lost 15 seconds to Blummenfelt. Sam Long was 40th out of the water, a disappointing 2:45 off the lead. With him taking time to focus on this race he will have hoped to be closer to the likes of Matt Hanson and Jackson Laundry.
Bike
As with the women’s race T1 was slower than usual with most athletes taking time to add extra layers. Blummenfelt and Iden moved through the field by not taking the extra time, this particularly benefitted Blummenfelt as he was now much closer to the front of the race.
A strange moment occurred when Magnus Ditlev went to leave transition with his bike but had forgotten to put on his helmet, surprising to see that this was not given a penalty. This error now put him 1:21 back from the leaders.
Blummenfelt hit the front of the bike early, trying to keep warm and distance himself from Iden. He was followed by Funk, Taagholt and Kanute. Through 20k Ditlev had reduced the gap to just over 30 seconds, this shows the pace Blummenfelt was driving at the front as Ditlev would normally be able to bridge up within the first 20k.
Ditlev closed the gap over the next 15k and was able to latch onto the back of the group. Iden was able to follow this move and it was at this point it looked like he began to struggle. Further back Long had moved through the field and sat 2:25 back from Blummenfelt. It was at this point one of the major talking points from the race occurred, Long was handed a 5 minute penalty for illegally slotting in. There have been various videos going round but Ironman released a statement saying the infringement occurred before this. It’s hard to form an opinion on the call when we don’t see what the referee gets to see.
Blummenfelt continued to set the pace before Ditlev attacked up Snow Canyon. This effort dropped Taagholt and Kanute but Blummenfelt and Funk were able to track the move. This group of 3 came into transition together with Kanute 40 seconds back and Taagholt 2:20 back. Iden had lost further time throughout the bike and come into T2 over 5 minutes back.
Run
Blummenfelt gained a step on Funk and Ditlev with a quick transition and was speeding into the distance. At this point it looked like he would be unchallenged for the title. Ben Kanute had other ideas, catching the Norwegian within 4k and moving to the front to set the pace. All attention was with this pair as they ran together for the next 12k.
Further back Ditlev had established himself in 3rd place with Funk dropping slightly off the pace. Taagholt had also slowed and this opened the door for Noodt to move into 4th place.
With 5k to go Blummenfelt put in a surge and was able to steadily build a lead over Kanute. The gap remained around 20 seconds over the next 3k with Kanute hopeful that Blummenfelt may blow up, however it had expanded to 50 seconds by the time Blummenfelt hit the finish line.
Kanute came home in a strong second place and Ditlev rounded out the podium ahead of the Germain pair of Noodt and Funk. 5 of the top 10 finishers were 25 years old or younger, the future is bright.
Iden struggled over the first lap of the run and ended up dropping out.
Results
Blummenfelt gets revenge for his 3rd place finish in Kona and adds to his expanding trophy cabinet. Olympic Champion, WTCS Champion, Ironman World Title and now Ironman 70.3 World Title. He returns to short course racing on Sunday to start the qualification process for Paris 2024.
- Kristian Blummenfelt – 3:37:11
- Ben Kanute – 3:38:00
- Magnus Ditlev – 3:39:51
- Mika Noodt – 3:40:50
- Frederic Funk – 3:42:33
PTO Rankings
No movement in the top 10 but Kanute jumps into the top 20 and Mika Noodt rockets up into the top 30 by getting his 3rd eligible result.
Triathlon Insights 
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