Already five race favorites were out – Jan Frodeno, Lucy Charles, Patrick Lange, Joe Skipper and Javier Gomez – but it now seems like Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden aren’t 100 percent fit either. Both athletes didn’t have an ideal preparation due to a cold. Their head coach, Olav Aleksander Bu, told Tri247 that they weren’t the only once within the team. “More or less everyone here in the camp is recovering from a cold”, he said.
In Iden’s case, it seems like he might be ready just in time for the World Championship. The reigning Ironman 70.3 World Champion got sick while training on altitude in the Sierra Nevada. Just in the period that he required him to do some important training work, Aleksander Bu says. Although, it impacted his training a little, he could soon return to his normal program. “For him, it has had not too much of an impact. I’d say some small ripples showing up slightly afterwards, but he’s almost back to 100 percent, I’d say he’s at about 90 percent now.”
Ironman world record holder and Olympic champion Blummenfelt got sick in a later stage, which is worse timing wise, the Norwegian coach explains. “Kristian got it at a worse time than Gustav, just before arriving in St George. So we had to take down the training completely because he was coughing and had mucus.” Only yesterday, Blummenfelt would have returned to normal training. “He lost a big part of that specialization period”, Aleksander Bu told Tri247.
“For sure the two athletes have lost some time, but they are strong, and it is what it is”, he concludes.
