Patrick Lange claims third Ironman Kona World Title in new race record: best of the best

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Patrick Lange claims third Ironman Kona World Title in new race record: best of the best

It was a race in which favorites like Kristian Blummenfelt and Sam Laidlow cracked, but most of all it was a race in which Patrick Lange was perhaps the best version of himself. After a sublime race in which he was very strong from start to finish, Lange just won his third IM world title in a new course record at Kona.

During the swim, it was Dutchman Menno Koolhaas who boldly took the lead, but halfway through Sam Laidlow – as the defending champion – took over the initiative. Yet that didn’t last long either, because a few hundred meters later Koolhaas took over again to eventually go first – with a swim time of 47:02 – to T1. Koolhaas was not alone at that point, as a huge leading group immediately followed, which included, in addition to Laidlow, Antontio Benito López, Patrick Lange, Gregory Barnaby, Kieran Lindars, Ben Kanute, Finn Grosse-Freese, Sam Appleton, Paul Schuster, Matthew Marquardt, Rudy von Berg, Kacper Stepniak, Kristian Blummenfelt, Braden Currie, Daniel Baekkegard, Robert Wilkowiecki, Nick Thompson, Clément Mignon, David McNamee, Denis Chevrot and Steven McKenna. A number of big names also fell behind, including Magnus Ditlev (+1:15), Kristian Hogenhaug (+1:21), Gustav Iden (+3:31), Matt Hanson (3:34) and Lionel Sanders (5:17).

On the bike, the field was immediately torn apart by Laidlow, who gave no one a chance to ride with him. Already in the first 20 kilometers, the defending champion grabbed a lead of 1:30 minutes, while Ditlev joined Hogenhaug in the large chasing group behind the leader. Meanwhile, Laidlow continued to increase his lead and it would actually continue that way until T2.

Ditlev and Blummenfelt were still in pursuit, but Blummenfelt soon ran into problems because he threw up several times and couldn’t keep his nutrition in, but Ditlev couldn’t close the gap either. For a while he got a little closer to Laidlow, but in the closing stages on the bike the gap to the front got much bigger again. In the end, Laidlow recorded an almost staggering bike record with 3:57:22 and he started the marathon with a margin of 5:53 minutes. Robert Kallin got to run second, while Ditlev followed in third at 6:57 minutes. Then men like Hogenhaug, Marquardt, Chevalier and also Koolhaas entered T2, as did Blummenfelt, Barnaby and Lange (+9:06).

During the run, it quickly became clear that Laidlow was struggling. He could still maintain his gap a few kilometers, but against an unleashed Lange, no one was up to the task. As Laidlow became increasingly overcome by the heat and stumbled along the road, Lange seemed to pick up the pace, quickly moving into second position and even taking over the lead after 17 kilometers. At that stage, it also became clear that Ditlev was able to recover, because after a poor start to the marathon, in which he dropped to tenth place, he still advanced to second position.

Lange, meanwhile, kept going totally in control and won the race in a new race record of 7:35:53. Ditlev, who thus started the marathon badly but experienced a great catch-up, eventually ran to second place: tired, he crossed the finish line after 7:43:39. Rudy von Berg also gained many positions during the run and eventually finished third in 7:46:00.

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