<\/p>
Gustav Iden demolished the Ironman World Championship course record to win on debut in Kona and says it means that he and training partner Kristian Blummenfelt have won pretty much everything there is to win in the sport.<\/p>\n
Iden now holds both the Ironman and Ironman 70.3 crowns \u2013 he will defend the latter in St George in three weeks time \u2013 and was quick to point out that the pair have just about swept the board when it comes to what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cKristian is the Olympic champion and reigning ITU [World Triathlon] world champion, set the fastest ever time, and the two of us have every title now except the ITU long distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have the PTO No 1 position, the Challenge Championship and Collins Cup wins. We have everything and to be part of this group is extremely special. I\u2019m proud of how we\u2019re working.\u201d<\/p>\n
The confident Norwegian wasn\u2019t surprised that it took both a course record 7:40:24 and marathon record 2:36:15 to take the tape ahead of a gutsy Sam Laidlow, who held on at the front into the last four miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought 7:45 would be the minimum to win,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
While the pass may have come later than expected, the race went by almost without a hitch for the 26-year-old from Bergen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI swam quite hard but realised quite early that it was a front pack swim and no-one was going to pull away,\u201d he explained<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the start you always swim you\u2019re always a bit stressed as it\u2019s hard to know which feet to follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I managed to relax and in the end was super relaxed. I swam extremely easy for the last kilometre and thought it would set me up for a good race.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the bike it was also easy at the start and then the pace was building up a bit. I heard a lot of the guys were getting penalties so I was trying to be smart with my position.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing off the bike I was feeling good, but running with Kristian, you\u2019re always a bit \u2013 not afraid \u2013 but you know it\u2019s going to be a tough one.<\/p>\n
\u201cKristian didn\u2019t want to run fast at the front. I guess he was really tired but I thought at the time he was maybe just playing mind games.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy ambition was always to be slightly conservative until after the uphill climb in the energy lab and then just smash it. That\u2019s what I did!\u201d<\/p>\n
There was also a respectful exchange as he passed Laidlow just after the 22-mile mark, with the pair exchanging brief handshakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him I was proud of him. And honestly, I\u2019m super proud of him,\u201d Iden said. \u201cI know he\u2019s working hard and he comes off as a bit of a d*** sometimes, but he\u2019s so nice and so real and he loves the sport more than I do. I do tri because I think it\u2019s fun. He just loves triathlon.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also meant it\u2019s now 10 wins from 10 starts while wearing his lucky hat bearing the name of a Taiwanese temple. Iden found the hat at the side of the road while in Japan and wore it for his first Ironman 70.3 win in Nice in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually a bit insane,\u201d he added. \u201cAt the start I was just having a bit of fun with it, but I\u2019ve actually never lost wearing it and I want to maintain that as long as possible. It does play slightly on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iden may have to do without its powers in the near future though. As the Norwegians\u2019 focus for 2023 switches back to the Olympic distance and they look to secure the qualification points for Paris 2024, he doesn\u2019t think he\u2019ll be allowed to wear the cap due to the strict rules.<\/p>\n
Main pic: Pic: Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images for Ironman<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Tim Heming Published: Sunday, 09 October 2022 at 12:00 am Gustav Iden demolished the Ironman World Championship course record to win on debut in Kona and says it means that he and training partner Kristian Blummenfelt have won pretty much everything there is to win in the sport. Iden now holds both the Ironman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18329,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/gustav-iden-now-we-have-won-everything.jpg",594,396,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/gustav-iden-now-we-have-won-everything-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/gustav-iden-now-we-have-won-everything-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/gustav-iden-now-we-have-won-everything.jpg",594,396,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/gustav-iden-now-we-have-won-everything.jpg",594,396,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/gustav-iden-now-we-have-won-everything.jpg",594,396,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/10\/gustav-iden-now-we-have-won-everything.jpg",594,396,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Tim Heming Published: Sunday, 09 October 2022 at 12:00 am Gustav Iden demolished the Ironman World Championship course record to win on debut in Kona and says it means that he and training partner Kristian Blummenfelt have won pretty much everything there is to win in the sport. Iden now holds both the Ironman…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/18328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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