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Gustav Iden
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David Pintens / dpa
Gustav Iden won the Ironman World Championship and ended the German title series in Hawaii with a course record.
The 26-year-old Norwegian prevailed on Saturday (local time) after 3.86 kilometers of swimming, 180.2 kilometers of cycling and 42.2 kilometers of running in unofficially 7:40:24 hours ahead of the French surprise second-place finisher Sam Laidlow from France and Kristian Blummenfelt .
In the absence of the injured Jan Frodeno, Iden broke his course record from 2019 by more than ten minutes (7:51:13).
After six triumphs in a row, the winning streak of the German triathletes broke.
Iden's compatriot and training partner Blummenfelt won Olympic gold in Tokyo last year, won the ITU title and this year won the 2021 Ironman World Championships in St. George.
He went into the race as a big favourite.
The best German at temperatures well above 30 degrees was Sebastian Kienle in the fastest race in Ironman history to date.
At the end he was 15:15 minutes behind, a good twelve minutes missing for his fifth medal.
The now 38-year-old started the series of German victories up to and including 2019 in 2014 with his World Cup triumph, he competed in Hawaii for the last time.
Five-minute penalty, among other things, for slipstreaming for Lange
This time Kienle made it for the first time in under eight hours (7:55:40) after a weak swim with rank 46 in sixth place in a top-class field in which only three-time champion Frodeno was missing.
The winner of 2015, 2016 and 2019 had to cancel his start due to a hip injury, but followed the two-part World Cup with the professional women on Thursday on site in Kailua-Kona.
Patrick Lange, world champion from 2017 and 2018, finished tenth after a time penalty on the bike.
For the new champion Iden it is the biggest success of his career in only his second Ironman.
With the Norwegian flag in hand, he enjoyed the last few meters on the black and red carpet.
Iden is also a two-time half-distance champion.
The Ironman World Championship returned to Hawaii after the failures in 2020 and 2021 due to the corona pandemic.
ngo/dpa/sid