Patrick Long put in a pretty brilliant run – and all-around performance – in Kona, becoming a three-time winner of the IRONMAN World Championship in a course record time of seven hours, 35 minutes and 53 seconds.

Following in the footsteps of compatriot Laura Philipp, who won the women's race in Nice, the German superstar was in ninth place at the start of the marathon, just over nine minutes behind defending champion Sam Laidlow.

But he wasted no time in making up much of that deficit, making the catch before half-time before pulling away as Laidlow suffered badly in the heat, having previously broken the cycle distance record.

He wasn't the only one who had to make strides, his compatriot Leon Chevalier was also the next to falter, shortly after moving past Laidlow into second place.

This all meant that it was Magnus Ditlev (DEN) who chased Lange into second place, while Rudy von Berg in third became the first American to reach the podium this decade.

However, things didn't work out for the Norwegian duo Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, both former winners, as they had to endure days of testing before being eliminated from the competition.

Swimming – Koolhaas and Laidlow try to even it up

Conditions for the swim were good, highlighted by the fact that the leaders were not much more than half a minute behind Jan Sibbersen's course record time of 46:29 – and Australian age group athlete Sam Askey-Doran would actually go on to achieve 45:43 later!

Laidlow was at the front from the start as he and Menno Koolhaas (NED) took turns at the front, with Ben Kanute (USA) and Kona debutant Kieran Lindars (GBR) also in close proximity, although we practically had a large group the first 15 minutes or so.

But then there was a split and one pack became three. The big potential winners at this point were Ditlev and Lange, who exceeded swimming expectations as part of the 20+ man front group, but there was mixed news for Norway because while Blummenfelt was also there, Iden had dropped back to the second group.

When Laidlow reached the turning point halfway through he started to apply pressure and it worked to some extent – the front group was three or four wide and suddenly they were lined up in a long line.

Bradley Weiss (RSA), Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN) and Robert Kallin (SWE) were three who dropped out, meaning Ditlev was now last in the lead group and tried to hold on to his feet – but the elastic broke soon after, which would result in him losing well over a minute in the final quarter of the swim.

Leaving the water, Koolhaas was first in 47:02, followed by Laidlow, with just 22 seconds separating him from first to 22nd place, which included 2017 and 2018 winner Lange.

And although Ditlev was 1:34 behind, he had the crucial consolation of super biker Kallin at his side.

Iden was at 3:31, Leon Chevalier (FRA) at 3:40 and Lionel Sanders (CAN) at 5:18 – with “No Limits” right around professional cyclists Camwurf (AUS) and Rasmus Svenningsson (SWE), that is lots of bike firepower always at hand.

Coming in second to last through T1 was Australian Matt Burton, who reported being stung in the face by a jellyfish, something Kanute would later repeat.

Bike – Sam puts the hammer down

The first part of the bike ride was all about Laidlow.

In fact, it was Britain's Lindars who was first out of T1 – he had previously said he wanted to “be in the race” and it was an impressive start.

But it didn't take long for Laidlow to take the lead and less than five miles later he had already opened up a 52 second lead over the rest.

Things were going well for him even when he was behind, as there were only 46 seconds between second and 20th place, making the race dynamics difficult for the 19 pursuers and slipstream penalties posing an obvious threat.

One man who undoubtedly had the strength to push past a large group was Ditlev, and it was no surprise that he pushed through the field, meaning he was in second place at 25 miles, 2:08 behind Laidlow.

In contrast to Ditlev's progress, Blummenfelt seemed to have a harder time managing the dynamics of the large group, but he eventually fought his way to third place – just behind Ditlev – but then the situation took a turn for the worse.

Because he started projectile vomiting pretty much all the food he had brought on board, which we've seen him do before, but not to this extent.

This caused him to fall back into the chasing group, but again showed great recovery powers to stabilize the ship.

Shortly afterwards there was bad news for his compatriot Iden, who received one of the first penalties. But it wasn't about drafting, it was about a yellow card for “accidental littering”.

The 60-second penalty obviously didn't help his cause, but he was already well off the pace at this point and by the turn at Hawi at 59 miles the pace would now increase to over 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, Laidlow continued to do exceptional things at the helm. At Hawi he had a total time of 2:55:13 – two years ago, when he took the lead from the bike, he was 3:05:54 at the same time.

Unsurprisingly, this cost everyone a lot of time – except for Ditlev, who was just able to limit the losses at +2:33.

And this pattern continued as we approached the last quarter of the bike ride. As we approached the 90mph point, Laidlow's lead over Ditlev increased a little to 2:54, but grew much faster over the rest.

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

However, there was still a lot to gain – the temperatures were now rising as the sun came out and the likes of Lange and López, two of the fastest runners, were hoping for their chances of getting a foothold in Laidlow.

However, Laidlow wasn't slowing down at the front – by the time we reached T2 he had broken his own previous cycle course record of 4:04:36 set in 2022, making him the first man to go under four hours – and by some margin 3:57:22!

Behind him, Ditlev had suddenly fallen dramatically behind – not only ahead of Laidlow, but was also overtaken by Kallin for second place.

Kallin was +5:53 at the transition, while Ditlev +6:57 and Høgenhaug led the chasing group in fourth with 7:21. One person worth mentioning at this point was Chevalier, who had looked out of contention on the bike at the start but finished the race in sixth place.

Blummenfelt was ninth with +8:55 and Lange was ninth with +9:06.

Five of the first six men, as well as a former record holder in 18th place and Trevor Foley (USA) in 21st place, exceeded the old cycling distance record. So were the conditions perfect or was there a risk of breakdowns along the way? We would find out soon…

Run – The race is long

It hurt Foley, who had moved impressively through the field on the bike in 4:03:11 and is one of the stronger runners, but a late crash appeared to have ended his race early as he hip-hipped through the transition.

But there was a telling start to the marathon from Lange, who took a two minute lead from Laidlow within the first four miles and moved into second place, giving a nod to Blummenfelt and others as he overtook them!

And he continued to press Laidlow's advantage while looking as super-smooth as ever.

The nine minutes that separated them at the start had practically halved after just nine miles, with just 4:36 hours separating the two.

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

And another man who was making great progress was Chevalier, who was now standing next to Koolhaas and was about to pass.

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

Not long afterwards, Chevalier also overtook Laidlow and then a younger Ditlev also passed.

But there was a lot more drama – Chevalier was about to slow down and reach for the ice buckets in the aid stations. But von Berg moved in the other direction as he pushed past Chevalier into third place.

In the meantime the situation has finally calmed down – at least as far as the first three places were concerned – but there was still a lot to play for the remaining top 10 places.

Meanwhile, Lange was the first to break this course record and was not far from the marathon best time of 2:37:34. Ditlev was in second place, 7:45 minutes behind, while von Berg completed the podium with +10:06.

Chevalier continued to fight for fourth place, swimming leader Koolhaas was fifth and Barnaby sixth.

And there were also notable performances fromwurf – who looked stronger than most on the run – in seventh and Lindars, in a wonderful debut, in eighth.

Remarkably, no fewer than 16 athletes broke the eight-hour mark, a new record. Just outside was Laidlow, who bravely fought his way to 18th place.

2024 IRONMAN World Championship 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. Cameronwurf (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)