“The match up we’ve been waiting for”, that’s how the Professional Triathletes Organisation referred to it. And it’s true, because if there are two men that we would like to see in a side-by-side battle, it’s the Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden. The PTO just announced that the Ironman World Champion and the Ironman 70.3 World Champion will face each other at the PTO Canadian Open.
That means we will see two of the greatest Long-Distance triathletes of the hour in one race. Kristian Blummenfelt has won nearly everything he could in the last few months: an Olympic gold medal, he unofficially broke the Ironman World Record, he became Ironman World Champion, and he completed a Long Distance in less than seven hours. Meanwhile, his friend Iden won the Ironman 70.3 World Championship two times in a row. That gives all the ingredients for a nice competition in Edmonton, because athletes will then complete in a format that’s closest to a Middle Distance: two km of swimming, 80 km of cycling and 18 km of running.
The race, which is part of the PTO World Tour, will take place on Jul. 23-24 in Edmonton, Canada. The rest of the start list will be announced later this month. Find out more about the PTO World Tour here.
