The Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Lahti, Finland showed that triathlon is changing. Jan Frodeno’s GOAT status may be challenged by someone completely new and unknown. Favorites of the Ironman and PTO ratings of the last 3 years have something to worry about.
There are 3 main triathlon distances in the world: Olympic (1.5–40–10), full (3.8–180–42.2) and long (1.9–90–21.1).
Olympic triathlon.
This is the territory of national teams and young Olympic champions. State flags and prestige are at stake. With the inclusion of triathlon in the program of the Olympic Games 2000, this sport began to gain worldwide popularity and even some TV attention outside the narrow group of those preparing for the Olympic Games. Athletes under 25 years old are super fast. Swimming at 1:10 min/100 m pace and running faster than 3 min/km are normal here.
Full distance (aka 140.6).
This is Ironman’s (Kona, Hawaii) and a Challenge (Roth in Germany) territory. Older professionals with their sponsors dominate and endure here. The duration of the exercise is enourmous and the speed, of course, is much lower. For the past 10 years, the main star of Ironman has been Jan Frodeno. But the time has finally come and he finally announced retirement. In the last 3 years the youngsters — Gustav Iden (28), Christian Blummenfelt (29), Magnus Ditlev (25), Sam Laidlaw (24), Max Newman (28) and others — were busy fighting each other for the Frodeno’s successor’s and the GOAT status.
Long distance (aka 70.3 or “half-distance”).
This field is divided between long lasting Ironman franchise, and progressive PTO (Professional Triathlon Organization). Here the most interesting things are happening. Many 140.6 favorites have also been leaders in 70.3 where they swim, ride and run faster. They were like TV stars taking it all. But things start to change quickly. Young unknown athletes under the age of 23 come to the fore. They demonstrate speeds close to the Olympic triathlon at a distance of 2 times longer. Swimming at a pace of 1:10–1:12 min/100 m and running faster than 3:30 min/km are now the key to win. And that’s a bad news for many of current favoutites unable to swim, bike and run 70.3s at Olympic triathlon speeds.
Who will then be the Frodeno’s successors?
The Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Lahti came as a surprise to all the favorites. It was won by an unknown 22-year-old Rico Bogen from Germany who made a race of his life and finished in 3:32:22. None of the favorites of the full triathlon could even come close. His main competitors were the same as himself — young and promising, but not very famous. All of them performed at the highest speeds.
The results of Rico Bogen by stages look like this:
swim (1.9 km): 22 min 52 sec, average pace 1 min 11 sec/100 m
bike (90 km): 1 hour 56 min, average speed 46.2 km/h
run (21.1 km): 1 hour 11 minutes, average pace 3:22 min/km
These are Olympic triathlon speeds. If Rico Bogen and those alike can keep on moving like this a new generation of athletes will blow minds of current favorites and turn the triathlon around.
Let’s see how it all evolves during the Men’s Ironman World Championship in Nice in October!
See you soon with a well-rounded triathlon training service in OMY! Sports virtual coaching app 🚀