the norwegian Kristian Brummenfelt, with a time of 7:49:16, and the Swiss Daniela Ryf, with 8:34:59Ironman world champions were proclaimed in St George (Utah, USA), on the first occasion that the extreme triathlon event championships, suspended in 2021 due to the pandemic, it was held outside of Kailua-Kona (Hawaii).
The Spanish Gurutze Frades Larralde, winner of the Vichy Ironman in 2015, finished ninth here with a time of 9:13:35with partial times of 1:01:49 in swimming, 5:10:23 in cycling and 2:58:02 in the run, with their corresponding transitions, so the Biscayan achieved the goal that was set: finish in the top ten.
The absences of some of the favoriteslike the German Jan Frodeno, the British Alistair Brownlee or the Norwegian Gustav Iden they left the test wide openwhich consists of a 3.86 km swim in the open sea, a 180 km bike ride and a 42.2 km (a marathon) run.
The Olympic champion Blummenfelt, who was participating in an Ironman for the second timecame out of the water somewhat late, almost two minutes after the Frenchman Sam Laidlow, who did a partial of 47:29. Blummenfelt was still 4 minutes behind the front group when he got off the bike, but in the foot race he was powerful. Halfway through the marathon he was already second, behind New Zealander Braden Currie, and at km 30 he took the lead to go alone towards the finish line. Currie gave up second place to Canadian Lionel Sanders in the final hundred metres. The New Zealander was third with 7:54:03, 16 seconds behind the Canadian, who had already won a silver medal in 2017.
Ryf sentence on the bike
In the women’s event, the American Haley Chura came out of the water with more than two minutes ahead of the rest. Daniela Ryf lost four minutes in the first sector, but in the cycling section she already reached the lead together with the British Kat Matthews.
Ryf, who had already been a four-time Ironman world champion, He left the test with the bicycle almost sentenced. She entered the marathon with a 7-minute advantage over Matthews and 15 over the defending champion, the German Hanne Haug. The Swiss celebrated her fifth title well in advance, almost nine minutes ahead of Matthews (8:43:49). and thirteen on Haug (8h47:03). Before Ryf, only Zimbabwean Paula Newby-Fraser and Swiss Natascha Badmann had won five golds.
