For a long time last Saturday, Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev seemed headed for a magnificent victory at the Ironman World Championship on Kona – which would also mark his first world title – but things ultimately went wrong in the final kilometers: Ditlev was overcome by the heat, had to walk more and more, and lost a lot of time to his pursuers. With just a few kilometers to go, the Dane finally collapsed and ultimately withdrew from the race. “I was less than 30 min away from achieving my biggest dream.”
“It’s been a tough two years for me dealing with sickness and disappointing results”, Ditlev said. “Over the past few months I felt that things were starting to turn around and I managed to prepare better and more meticulously for a race than I ever have.”
Ditlev came out of the water a few minutes behind after the swim, but rode his way to the lead during the bike and held a very comfortable lead for most of the marathon. “On race day I executed my pacing, cooling and nutrition plan to the best of my ability and thought I stayed within my limits on the bike and run. However heading back from the energy lab, the lights suddenly went out. I did everything I could to keep going but in the end, it was neither possible nor responsible to keep pushing.”
