IRONMAN Kona 2024 results: Lange claims World Championship glory as Laidlow BLOWS UP and Blummenfelt THROWS UP

Patrick Lange produced a quite brilliant run in Kona – and all-round performance – to become a three-time winner of the IRONMAN World Championship in a course record time of seven hours, 35 minutes and 53 seconds.

The 38-year-old German superstar, following in the footsteps of compatriot Laura Philipp who won the women’s race in Nice, was in ninth place and just over nine minutes behind defending champion Sam Laidlow starting the marathon.

But he wasted little time in taking huge chunks out of that deficit and made the catch before the halfway point before cruising away as Laidlow suffered badly in the heat after earlier shattering the bike course record.

He wasn’t the only one to be reduced to a walk, fellow Frenchman Leon Chevalier was next to falter soon after he had moved past Laidlow into second.

All of which meant it was Magnus Ditlev (DEN) who chased home Lange for second, with Rudy von Berg in third becoming the first American to make the podium this decade.

It wasn’t to be though for Norwegian duo Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, both former winners, as they endured testing days as they dropped out of contention.

Swim – Koolhaas and Laidlow try to string it out

The conditions were good for the swim, underlined by the fact that the leaders were not much more than half a minute off Jan Sibbersen’s course record time of 46:29 – and Australian age-group athlete Sam Askey-Doran would actually clock 45:43 a little later!

Laidlow was right to the fore from the off as he and Menno Koolhaas (NED) took turns on the front, with Ben Kanute (USA) and Kona debutant Kieran Lindars (GBR) also in close proximity, though we effectively had one huge group for the first 15 minutes or so.

But then things did start to split up and one pack became three. The big potential winners at this point were Ditlev and Lange who were exceeding swim expectations by being part of the 20+man front section, but there was mixed news for Norway as while Blummenfelt was also in there, Iden had dropped back to the second one.

Reaching the turn point at halfway was when Laidlow started to apply the pressure and it worked to an extent – that front group had been three or four wide and suddenly it was strung out in one long line.

Bradley Weiss (RSA), Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN) and Robert Kallin (SWE) were three who were dropped, meaning Ditlev was now last in the front group and trying to hang on to the feet – but the elastic would snap soon afterwards which would lead to him losing well over a minute in the last quarter of the swim.

Exiting the water it was Koolhaas out first in 47:02, with Laidlow on his tail and only 22 seconds separating first to 22nd, which included 2017 and 2018 winner Lange.

And while Ditlev was 1:34 back, he had the significant consolation of uber-biker Kallin alongside him.

Iden was at 3:31, Leon Chevalier (FRA) at 3:40 and Lionel Sanders (CAN) at 5:18 – with ‘No Limits’ right around pro cyclist Cam Wurf (AUS) and Rasmus Svenningsson (SWE), so plenty of bike firepower close at hand.

Coming through T1 in next-to-last place was Australian Matt Burton who reported he’d been stung on his face by jellyfish, something that Kanute would also echo later on.

Bike – Sam puts the hammer down

The first section of the bike was all about Laidlow.

It was actually Britain’s Lindars who was first out of T1 – he’d said beforehand he wanted “to be in the race” and this was an impressive start.

But it took barely any time for Laidlow to move to the head of affairs and less than five miles in he had already opened up a 52 seconds lead on the rest.

Sam Laidlow set a blistering bike pace [Photo credit: Getty Images for IRONMAN]

Things were falling into place nicely for him in behind too as just 46 seconds separated second to 20th, making it a tricky race dynamic for those 19 chasers with drafting penalties an obvious threat.

One man who undoubtedly had the power to surge past a big group was Ditlev and it was no surprise to see him cut through the field, meaning he was up to second at 25 miles, 2:08 behind Laidlow.

In contrast to Ditlev’s progress, Blummenfelt looked to be having a more challenging time negotiating the big group dynamics but he did finally work his way into third – just behind Ditlev – only for things to take a turn for the worse.

For he started projectile vomiting pretty much all the nutrition he’d taken on board, which we’ve seen from him before but not on this scale.

That saw him plummet back into the chase group but he again showed great recovery powers to steady the ship.

Hot on the heels of that, there was bad news for his compatriot Iden who picked up one of the first penalties. But it wasn’t for drafting – instead it was a yellow card for “unintentional littering”.

The 60-seconds sanction obviously didn’t help his cause but he was already a long way off the pace at this point and that would now balloon over 10 minutes by the turn in Hawi after 59 miles.

Meanwhile up front Laidlow was continuing to do extraordinary things. By Hawi he had clocked a cumulative time of 2:55:13 – two years ago when he led off the bike he was 3:05:54 at the same point.

Not surprisingly that was putting significant time into everyone – bar Ditlev, who was just about able to limit the losses at +2:33.

And that pattern continued as we started to head into the last quarter of the bike. Approaching the 90-mile point Laidlow’s advantage to Ditlev has moved up a little to 2:54 but it was increasing at a much more rapid rate to the rest.

Kallin was now alone in third at +4:53 and then we had no fewer than 13 men at +6:27. That comprised American trio Matthew Marquardt, von Berg and Kanute, the battling Blummenfelt, Lange, Koolhaas, Lindars, Høgenhaug, Weiss, Antonio Benito López, (ESP), Kacper Stepniak (POL), Gregory Barnaby (ITA) and Nick Thompson (AUS).

There was still a huge amount to play for though – the temperatures were now rising as the sun came out and the likes of Lange and López, two of the very fastest runners, would fancy their chances of making inroads into Laidlow.

However Laidlow wasn’t slowing down up front – by the time we got to T2 he had shattered his own previous bike course record of 4:04:36 from 2022, becoming the first man to go under four hours – and by some margin with a 3:57:22!

In behind Ditlev had suddenly dropped dramatically back – not only from Laidlow but he had also been overtaken for second by Kallin.

Kallin was at +5:53 at transition, with Ditlev +6:57 and Høgenhaug leading the chase group in fourth at 7:21. One person to mention at this point was Chevalier who had looked out of contention early on the bike but ended it in sixth place.

Blummenfelt was ninth at +8:55 and Lange 13th at +9:06.

Five of the first six men plus a former record holder Wurf in 18th and Trevor Foley (USA) in 21st beat the old bike course record so was it a case of perfect conditions or the risk of meltdowns on the run? We’d soon find out…

Run – Lange blows race apart

There was heartbreak for Foley who had moved through the field impressively on the bike with a 4:03:11 and is one of the stronger runners but a late crash appeared to have ended his race early as he walked through transition holding his hip.

But there was a statement start to the marathon from Lange who took two minutes out of Laidlow’s lead inside the first four miles as he cruised through to second, with nods to Blummenfelt and others as he overtook them!

Patrick Lange was a class apart on the run [Photo credit: Getty Images for IRONMAN]

And he continued to eat into Laidlow’s advantage while looking as super smooth as ever at the same time.

The nine minutes between them at the start had pretty much been halved in the first nine miles, with just 4:36 separating the pair.

Laidlow wasn’t doing much wrong at this point – the gap between him and Koolhaas in third was staying constant – but Lange was on a different level.

And another man making great strides was Chevalier who by now was alongside Koolhaas and about to move past.

Things now escalated quickly – Lange continued his relentless progress but Laidlow was suffering badly and the catch came around the 11-mile mark.

Not long after Chevalier also overtook Laidlow and then a rejuvenated Ditlev eased past too.

But there was still plenty more drama to come – Chevalier was next to slow to a walk and grab for the ice buckets in the aid stations as Ditlev took second, followed by von Berg in third.

Things now finally settled down – at least as far as the first three were concerned – but there was still plenty to play for in terms of the rest of the top 10 places.

Meanwhile Lange broke that course record for first and wasn’t far off the marathon best with a 2:37:34. Ditlev was 7:45 back in second, with von Berg rounding out the podium at +10:06.

Chevalier would battle on for fourth, swim leader Koolhaas was fifth and Barnaby sixth.

And there were notable performances too from Wurf – who looked stronger than most on the run – in seventh and Lindars with a wonderful debut eighth.

Remarkably no fewer than 16 athletes went under the eight-hour mark, a new record. Just outside was Laidlow who bravely kept on for 18th.

Patrick Lange wins the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona (Photo – Mark Allen).

IRONMAN World Championship 2024 Results

Saturday October 26, 2024 – Kona

PRO Men

1. Patrick Lange (GER) – 7:35:53 (47:09 / 4:06:22 / 2:37:34)

2. Magnus Ditlev (DEN) – 7:43:39 (48:18 / 4:02:15 / 2:46:10)

3. Rudy von Berg (USA) – 7:46:00 (47:18 / 4:05:49 / 2:48:11)

4. Leon Chevalier (FRA) – 7:46:54 (50:43 / 4:01:38 / 2:49:56)

5. Menno Koolhaas (NED) – 7:47:22 (47:02 / 4:05:02 / 2:50:02)

6. Gregory Barnaby (ITA) – 7:48:22 (47:12 / 4:06:08 / 2:50:33)

7. Cameron Wurf (AUS) – 7:51:26 (52:25 / 4:03:59 / 2:50:11)

8. Kieran Lindars (GBR) – 7:51:55 (47:12 / 4:08:28 / 2:51:49)

9. Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN) – 7:53:37 (48:24 / 4:03:32 / 2:57:09)

10. Matt Hanson (USA) – 7:54:50 (50:37 / 4:14:11 / 2:45:25)

Patrick Lange wins the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona (Photo – Mark Allen).