It’s a remarkable shuffle that took place in the PTO-ranking today. The ranking, that compares the achievements of the best long-distance triathletes in the world, is now led by Norway’s Gustav Iden and Britain’s Lucy Charles. It used to be Germany’s Jan Frodeno and Swiss’ Daniela Ryf who dominated the charts.
That Ryf would be replaced by Charles is no complete surprise, given the year that Britain’s star athlete has had and considering the world title that she took during last week’s Ironman 70.3 St. George, but that Frodeno would be kicked off his throne by Iden, is very surprising. It’s mainly his win during the Ironman 70.3 World Championship that saw Iden earn a lot of points.
The PTO provides each athlete in a race with points based on their finish time. For this, the PTO uses some complex data and statistics that generate an AIT (adjusted ideal time) for each race. The AIT is decided based on past finish times, the conditions of the day and the racecourse. When athletes score 100 points, they exactly meet the set AIT, but athletes can also score higher.
The three races that helped Iden move to the top of the ranking were The Collins Cup 2021 (where he earned 111.34 points), the Ironman 70.3 World Championship 2021 (110.18 points) and Challenge Daytona 2020 (100.12 points). That came down to an average of 107.21 points for the Norwegian athlete. That’s about five points higher than Frodeno, who also scored points at The Collins Cup 2021 (112.86). Other races that belong to his three best events in 2021, are Challenge Miami (107.51) and Challenge Gran Canaria (88.10).
The women’s top five is complete with Germany’s Laura Philipp taking third, America’s Taylor Knibb in fourth place and Germany’s Anne Haug in fifth. In the men’s ranking, America’s Sam Long enjoys his third position, Germany’s Patrick Lange takes fourth and Denmark’s Daniel Baekkegard is in fifth place.
