American men dominated the first quarter century of the IRONMAN World Championship – but their last winner came back in 2002.
And they hadn’t had anyone on the podium post-COVID times until Rudy von Berg took third last year in Kona behind Patrick Lange and Magnus Ditlev.
There was a certain irony to that as von Berg actually grew up on the French Riviera and really leapt to global attention when he was third in a vintage edition of the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Nice in 2019, behind Gustav Iden and Alistair Brownlee.
A certain Kristian Blummenfelt was in fourth and von Berg, who has won both IRONMAN Nice and 70.3 Nice on similar roads, clocked the fastest bike leg that day.
Two more spots to aim for
So it was no wonder at Friday’s press conference that host Paul Kaye suggested big things are expected on Sunday.
And von Berg replied: “Hopefully Kona is not the peak. There are a couple more spots to go for.
“But I think it sets me up really good on a course where people might have said – Nice is Rudy’s course, he can crush the downhills or whatever – and then I podium first at Kona!
“It’s the perfect lead-in for this race on Sunday.”
Home advantage?
But when asked if he is one of the favourites, he then started to just play down expectations a little.
He said: “A lot of these guys have been training here for many weeks so I don’t believe I have an advantage like I did in 2019 where I was able to put many minutes into pretty much the entire field apart from Gustav and Alistair.
“I wouldn’t say I’m part of the ‘top favourites’ as it were – I haven’t run in that 2:30-2:38 bracket consistently so that’s my job to have a faster run to be in the very top favourites.
“But I think I’m in the conversation, especially on a course like this.”
Watch out for him on Sunday.
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