Trevor Foley has won an IRONMAN before as well as multiple 70.3 races but his victory at IRONMAN New Zealand at the weekend arguably pushed things to a new level.

There were a host of big-name rivals against him, most notably Kristian Blummenfelt – the reigning Pro Series champion and a man who had won every single IRONMAN he’s raced outside of the World Championship.

But Foley didn’t put a foot wrong, pacing it superbly on the bike in what was the first ever IRONMAN race with a 20-metre draft zone before cutting through the field on the run and then responding well when short-course star Pierre Le Corre put him under pressure deep into the marathon.

‘Crowd favourite’

“The race was nuts,” said Foley as he looked back at his performance. “I had a good swim. I thought I was on Matt Hanson’s feet, but I definitely wasn’t on Matt Hanson’s but it felt easy. I just wanted to swim within myself and found myself about six minutes down – was hoping for somewhere in the five, so pretty much fine. And the swim [in the crystal clear waters of Lake Taupo] was beautiful – as a weaker swimmer, a calm swim was nice for me.

“The bike was great, it was rolling, hard enough, but not super hard. I had okay bike legs, not really good, not really bad, just okay. I found myself hitting pretty much the front except for Kyle Smith after the first lap of the bike, that was pretty exciting, I didn’t really think that was going to happen. Then I put in a move, and a few guys went. I followed Fred Funk, he’s probably one of the slipperiest, fastest guys in the sport and he broke away at the end.

“Then on the run, I’m not going to speak for anyone else, but I definitely seemed like the crowd favourite and it was just firing me up.”

The run was where everything changed complexion as long-time leader Smith hit the wall and Foley powered past him – but still there was work to be done.

‘A nuts experience’

For with just less than 10km remaining, Le Corre closed Foley’s lead to around 30 seconds but the American found another gear after running side‑by‑side for nearly a kilometre with women’s race leader and eventual winner Kat Matthews – a moment that energised both athletes.

He recalled: “I just tried to stay calm, I know a lot of people say that, stick to your plan, but when I won my first IRONMAN two years ago at Lake Placid, I literally just stayed calm. It’s an IRONMAN, it’s really easy to run 21km, it’s really hard to run 42km.

“It gets really hard, really quickly, and people start disappearing. I literally just put them out of my mind and thought I’ve just got to tip the hat if they beat me,” explained Foley.

“When things were starting to get really hard, I ran up on Kat Matthews, which was like, a nuts experience going with a female pro and the pro leader,” he said. “Kat was chatting to me for a second and I was absolutely in the hole, so it was nice of her. With about 5km to go I started to think that I could do this and got it done.”

All eyes on Kona

Foley powered home to take victory in 7:46:44 and it reminded everyone that he was at the pointy end of the race at the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship before crashing hard on the bike going in to T2.

That was followed by a slightly frustrating 2025 and it’s clear now that Foley is locked on a return to Kona.

He revealed it was a late decision to head to New Zealand as training was going well and putting down a marker early on could tee up the season perfectly and give him flexibility later in the campaign.

That paid off spectacularly and he added: “Kona World Championships is the ultimate goal – I really want to prove that I can compete with the likes of Kristian, Magnus Ditlev and Sam Laidlow and get as close as possible to them.”