After winning the Olympics and WTCS world title, Kristian Blummenfelt has just shown that his quest for victory in Hawaii – a big dream for the Norwegian – is a very real one: he just raced Ironman Cozumel, his first Long Distance ever, and he won. He did so with overwhelming power and in the fastest time ever recorded at an Ironman: 7:21:12.
The eyes of the world were on Blummenfelt beforehand, especially because his compatriot Gustav Iden recently made his Long Distance debut and did so very successfully by winning IM Florida. One thing is certain; Blummenfelt got off to a flying start in the Mexican waters today, which traditionally flows in the right direction, resulting in insanely fast swimming times. Blummenfelt came out of the water after 39:41 minutes and found himself in a leading group of fourteen men.
For a very long time this large group stayed together on the bike, but about halfway through the ride the first real differences arose and Blummenfelt went off together with Swede Patrik Nilsson. While the two saw their lead grow in the kilometers that followed, it was only in the very last kilometers that Nilsson – probably due to mechanical issues – lost the connection to Blummenfelt and eventually only came back to T2 in the chasing group, which at that point was more than eight minutes behind. For Blummenfelt this meant that he could start the marathon with a comfortable lead.
It was exciting, of course, because a marathon was still unknown territory for Blummenfelt. This did not stop the Norwegian from setting a killer pace and the first few kilometers were all completed around 3:30 minutes per kilometer. At times the pace dropped a little, but throughout the marathon it was never really exciting and it was constantly clear that Blummenfelt would win the race.
He did so in the end in a time of 7:21:12.
