Gustav Iden is back. Maybe not yet in the form that we are used to, but at least he knows what winning is again. Iden just won Challenge Turku, a race with a not very strong field of competitors but an ideal opportunity to build up some confidence.
After the swim, it was Henry Räppo (Estonia) who came out of the water six seconds ahead of Frederick Webb and Rinel Plus. However, big favorites like Henrik Goesch, Gustav Iden and Joäo Ferreira came out of the water just under a minute and a half behind and thus had some time to make up if they still wanted to have a chance at victory.
Those who might have thought that these men would ride straight to the front were deceived. Räppo rode so strongly that he managed to increase his lead over everyone except Iden. Still, the Norwegian did not manage to close the gap to the front: he did manage to approach to just over a minute behind and only in the final kilometers of cycling did he win some more seconds back. Once in T2, Iden was 55 seconds behind Räppo, so the half marathon promised to be not only decisive, but also extremely exciting.
Yet even during the run Iden did not get victory for free: Räppo started the run incredibly strong and saw his lead increase to almost two minutes in the first ten kilometers. For a while it looked like he was going to win the race, but in the kilometers that followed, Iden came closer again, although he was still a minute and a half behind when he started the last 6km. Yet it was those six kilometers that would ultimately be the deciding factor and in which Iden made the final difference: just before the finish, he passed Räppo and eventually won the race in 3:36:01. Räppo was second in 3:36:12 and Ferreira third in 3:39:18.
The women’s race was won by Milan Agnew (4:03:16). Iida Reini finished second in 4:06:07 and Sara Perez Sala third in 4:07:18.
