Great Dane Magnus Ditlev, ranked number four in the world and the record-breaking winner of Challenge Roth in each of the last three seasons, was at the centre of a bizarre episode at IRONMAN Frankfurt on Sunday.

There was a stacked men’s field for what is the European Championship and the latest race in the IRONMAN Pro Series.

And things were boiling up nicely as a whole host of the main contenders started the marathon together, around nine minutes adrift of surprise leader Kristian Høgenhaug, with Ditlev at that point in third.

Paying the penalty

But penalties had already been a feature of the day, with local hero and reigning IRONMAN World Champion Patrick Lange given a one-minute yellow card sanction for failing to remove his swimskin in T1.

Next to suffer was Høgenhaug very early on the run for what the race’s official media said was “for receiving outside assistance”.

But mystery initially surrounded the circumstances around Ditlev. Around 8km into the run he had moved up to second and already chopped down the gap to Høgenhaug to five-and-a-half minutes.

But an official rode alongside him and seemed to suggest he hadn’t served a one-minute penalty and then showed him a red card.

On the broadcast, Ditlev could clearly be heard saying: “What the f*** are you doing? You can’t disqualify me.”

The coverage later suggested that the initial yellow card might have been for littering outside of an aid station.

At the start of the run when he emerged from T2, an official had seemed to indicate to Ditlev that he needed to zip up his trisuit.

Ditlev left in limbo

The uncertainty continued and Ditlev ran on, turning round soon after to say to the official: “Have you made your mind up yet?”

Meanwhile he continued to race and at the end of the first of four run laps, just over 10km in, he was 5:19 behind Høgenhaug.

On the live broadcast Craig Alexander, a three-time IRONMAN World Champion, then told viewers that the head referee was consulting with the other referees in terms of the Ditlev situation.

And around 40 minutes after the initial drama, news came through that the red card had been rescinded.

Thankfully it didn’t look to have seriously impacted the race dynamic – at the 18.5km split Ditlev was still in second and the gap to Høgenhaug was now just over four minutes.

However Ditlev would fade into eighth late on as Kristian Blummenfelt powered past Høgenhaug to defend his title in style – click here for a full report.