2022 Ironman Kona World Championship top-10 results and notables (full, searchable pro and age group results are here) …
Pro Women
1. Chelsea Sodaro (USA) — 8:33:46 (First American winner since 2002)
2. Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) — 8:41:37
3. Anne Haug (GER) — 8:42:22
4. Laura Philipp (GER) — 8:50:31
5. Lisa Norden (SWE) — 8:54:43
6. Fenella Langridge (GBR) — 8:56:26
7. Sarah Crowley (AUS) — 9:01:58
8. Daniela Ryf (SUI) — 9:02:26
9. Skye Moench (USA) — 9:04:31
10. Laura Siddall (GBR) — 9:07:49
16. Heather Jackson (USA) — 9:22:17
DNF. Sarah True (USA)
Pro Men
1. Gustav Iden (NOR) — 7:40:24 (Course Record)
2. Sam Laidlow (FRA) — 7:42:24
3. Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) — 7:43:23
4. Max Neumann (AUS) — 7:44:44
5. Joe Skipper (GBR) — 7:54:05
6. Sebastian Kienle (GER) — 7:55:40
7. Leon Chevalier (FRA) — 7:55:52
8. Magnus Ditley (DEN) — 7:56:38
9. Clement Mignon (FRA) — 7:56:58
10. Patrick Lange (GER) — 7:58:20
11. Cameron Wurf (AUS) — 8:00:51
13. Tim O’Donnell (USA) — 8:02:58
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Gustav Iden won the Ironman Kona World Championship in a course record time, becoming the second consecutive Norwegian to win the men’s world title and the first to do so in Kona.
Iden, 26, clocked an unofficial 7 hours, 40 minutes, 24 seconds for the 140.6-mile race (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run) with temperatures in the 80s on the Big Island of Hawaii.
“That was so freakin’ hard,” Iden said. “The last 10K, I was worried about the legend of the island killing me. … The island really, really tried to put me down, but I think my heart must be stronger than the legend of the island. That was so, so epic.”
He crushed the course record of 7:51:13 set by German Jan Frodeno the last time Kona held the event in 2019. The race was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. The 2021 edition was postponed to this past May and moved to St. George, Utah, where another Norwegian, Kristian Blummenfelt, prevailed.
IRONMAN KONA: Results
Iden also broke the course record for the marathon run, covering the roads in 2:36:15 and becoming the first person in race history to average sub-six-minute-mile pace. The previous run record was 2:39:45, set by German Patrick Lange in 2016.
Iden needed a strong run. He trailed Frenchman Sam Laidlow by 6 minutes, 15 seconds, after the bike. Laidlow, 23, broke the bike course record by covering the 112 miles in 4:04:36. Iden passed Laidlow in the 22nd mile of the run.
Laidlow held for second place, two minutes behind Iden. Blummenfelt, the Tokyo Olympic champion, was third. The top four men all went faster than the 140.6-mile course record.
Iden, the two-time reigning Half Ironman world champion, became the first man to win in his Kona debut since Belgian Luc Van Lierde in 1996. Van Lierde was the first European man or woman to win Kona (which began in 1978). Iden is the ninth consecutive European man to win the Ironman world title.
Iden, eighth in the Tokyo Olympic triathlon, became the youngest man to win Kona since 1982.
“I’m not sure if I’m coming back here,” Iden said. “This was too hard.”
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The Ironman Kona World Championships return after a three-year hiatus with a new format, live on Peacock on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET.
The Ironman, held annually in Hawaii since 1978, and in Kailua-Kona since 1981, was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The world championships made a one-time-only stop in St. George, Utah, on May 7 to make up for the 2021 cancellation. The winners were Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt, the Tokyo Olympic triathlon champion, and Swiss Daniela Ryf, who bagged her fifth Ironman world title.
WATCH LIVE: Ironman Kona men’s pro race, Saturday, 12 p.m. ET — STREAM LINK
Both entered Kailua-Kona, where the races are now split between two days — Thursday for the women and Saturday for the men. Chelsea Sodaro won the women’s race, ending a 20-year American victory drought.
Blummenfelt, 28 and in his Kona debut, will try to become the youngest male champion in Kona since German Faris Al-Sultan in 2005. His top challengers include countryman Gustav Iden, the two-time reigning Half Ironman world champion, and German Patrick Lange, the 2017 and 2018 Ironman Kona winner.
An Ironman includes a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and a marathon — totaling 140.6 miles of racing. It takes top triathletes eight hours to complete. Very arguably, it crowns the world’s fittest man and woman.
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