IRONMAN 70.3 Dubai 2022 – the lines are beginning to blur
At IRONMAN 70.3 Dubai 2022 the lines are beginning to blur between short course and long course athletes as Belgium’s short-course specialist Marten Van Riel took victory in an impressive time of 3:26:06 on the clock.
It was once the norm for triathletes competing on the World Triathlon circuit to switch to long-course racing in the twilight of their career as in the case of Olympic medallists Alister Brownlee and Javier Gomez.
But with the host of IRONMAN and PTO events set to take place this year with lucrative prize pots on offer, many athletes are beginning to race short and long distances parallel.
Three of top five finishers in IRONMAN 70.3 Dubai are world class short-course athletes.
The winner Van Riel was silver medallist at the 2021 WTCS Edmonton Grand Final, came 4th in the Tokyo Olympic Games and was second behind GB’s Alex Yee in the Super League Final in Malibu.
Also, in the mix at Dubai taking third spot with the fastest run of the day was French athlete Pierre Le Corre who is ranked 9th in the 2022 WTCS world rankings after coming third in WTCS race in Abu Dhabi in November. Le Corre has also won a European short-course Championship and numerous World Triathlon podiums.
Behind Le Corre coming in 4th place was Swiss athlete Andrea Salvisberg who represented his country at the Tokyo Olympic Games finishing in a respectable 22nd place and has three podiums to his name on the world short-course stage.
Ironically, the athlete who was on everyone favourite list, winner of the Olympics and WTCS world title, Kristian Blummenfelt gave a somewhat non-performance for his standard, being some 23 minutes down on the winning time of Van Riel.
That may be a tad harsh on the Norwegian Viking given he came home in 10th place but given his epic debut in the full Ironman Cozumel in November with the fastest ever IM time of 7:21:12 much more was expected from him.
Blurring the lines were the long-distance guys in the shape of Denmark’s, Daniel Bækkegård and Portugals, Filip Azevelo who were first and second respectively on this course 12 months ago. Both having risen through the World Triathlon short-course arena but now established long-course athletes.
And it was these two long-course specialists who showed the short-course athletes that having a powerful punch is no substitute for strength required in an IRONMAN race, not only strength as an athlete but also the strength of character as a person. There are no free peloton rides in a non-drafting IRONMAN. Regardless of how you swim, you better have the bike strength to hold your position going into the run.
And it happened the current IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship bronze medallist Bækkegård and Azevelo revealed what non-drafting is about, showing the chasing group – aside from Van Riel – clean sets of wheels as they built up a lead of over two minutes with a quarter of the ride done. While Azelvelo began to fade Bækkegård and Riel were still battling it out with 1:53 bike splits and both had a huge advantage as they exited T2 some 6 minutes ahead of the chasing group.
Bækkegård was putting up a courageous fight to defend his title putting in a strong run of 1:09:30. This, however, was not enough to halt the running prowess of the Belgian as he pulled away being almost a minute clear at that half-way stage and continued to stretch his lead to the winning tape with a 1:07:56 run split.
With Van Riel taking his second IRONMAN 70.3 record to two wins from two starts, Blummenfelt holding the fastest ever IRONMAN time and the 70.3 world record and his fellow compatriot Gustav Iden, twice IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, the lines between short and long course distances are really beginning to blur.
There will be very likely new faces on the IRON throne this year with two bites at the cherry with Utah in May and Hawaii in October. With so much talent beginning to race both short and long distance it will no longer be Frodeno and Lange, having it all their own way.
Top Five Finishers – Pro Men
- 1. Marten Van Riel (BEL) – 3:26:06
- 2. Daniel Bækkegård (DEN) – 3:27:54
- 3. Pierre Le Corre (FRA) – 3:33:01
- 4. Andrea Salvisberg (SUI) – 3:35:53
- 5. Filipe Azevedo (POR) – 3:37:07
