Just a month after making her Long Distance debut, Norway’s Solveig Løvseth has claimed her first Ironman victory in only her second attempt, winning a highly competitive edition of Ironman Lake Placid.
Following an Ironman debut at the European Championship in Hamburg in June, Løvseth entered Lake Placid as one to watch. However, her race didn’t get off to a perfect start. Exiting the water in eighth place with a time deficit of 5:19 to swim leader Rebecca Clarke (50:51), Løvseth had significant work to do. Holly Lawrence followed Clarke closely out of the water, while Marta Sanchez, Lisa Perterer, and Lotte Wilms were just 2:30 behind the leaders, setting the stage for a tightly contested bike leg.
On the bike, Lawrence, Sanchez, and Perterer quickly formed a front group, but it didn’t hold together for long. By the 80-kilometer mark, the trio began to splinter. Meanwhile, Løvseth was steadily making her way through the field, moving up into fourth place despite trailing the leaders by over eight minutes. As the final kilometers of the bike played out, Sanchez and Perterer pulled ahead together and entered T2 shoulder-to-shoulder. Løvseth arrived in third, 5:55 behind the leaders.
Then came the turning point: the marathon.
From the opening strides of the run, Løvseth began closing the gap with relentless focus. At around 17 kilometers, she reeled in Sanchez. Roughly 13 kilometers later, she made the decisive pass on Perterer. Once in front, Løvseth didn’t look back.
Crossing the finish line in 8:43:29, Løvseth sealed an emphatic victory and underlined her rising status among the sport’s elite. Perterer held on for second in 8:46:50, while Sanchez rounded out the podium in 8:53:07.
