Kristian Blummenfelt honoured the race to finish IRONMAN Kona on Saturday, but his 2024 World Championship experience was a ‘brutal’ one.
The 30-year-old superstar from Norway had gone into long-course triathlon’s most iconic race as favourite to claim victory for the first time in Hawaii – the one prize in the sport which still eludes him.
A brilliant victory in Frankfurt just a couple of weeks after the Olympic Games in Paris had suggested that the Bergen great was ready to transition from a year of short-course racing to competing with the very best over the full distance.
Blu throws up, then blows up
On Saturday in Kona though things went badly wrong for Blummenfelt, who had finished third behind compatriot Gustav Iden on his first visit to the Big Island.
The swim to start the day was routine for ‘Big Blu’ and he exited the water in 47:21 – just behind the leaders. And things went according to plan early on the big as the big battle with Sam Laidlow and Magnus Ditlev began to materialise.
After 31 miles of the 112-mile bike section a big effort had moved ‘Big Blu’ to one minute and 58 seconds behind Laidlow and right on the tail of Ditlev.
But then a sequence of projectile vomiting on the bike saw most of the nutrition he’d take on board up to that point end up on the Hawaii roads. In total the Norwegian great threw up eight times in quick succession.
Now facing the consequences of a nutrition nightmare, Blummenfelt was in damage limitation mode for the rest of the bike leg as he gradually lost time to Laidlow, who was cutting out a brutal pace at the front of the race.
Despite all those issues, Blummenfelt still entered T2 ahead of the eventual race winner Patrick Lange. But once on the run, he was soon passed by the German great. This was not the Blummenfelt who has so many times cut down opponents in such devastating fashion during the closing fashion.
Long day to get to the finish
Despite running out of gas early on that marathon, Kristian would honour the race by somehow making it to the finish after a tortuous 3:32:04 run. His overall time of 8:29:58 saw him finish the day in 35th position.
Afterwards his post-race debrief was short and brutally honest – as ever.
Writing on Instagram, he revealed: “Brutal day out on the course yesterday. Was cooked and ran out of energy early in Ali’i Drive. A long day to get around the last 30k.”
Now Blummenfelt must wait until 2026 to get another shot at Kona redemption with the race now split between Nice and Hawaii. But the good news is that we should have him in the sport of triathlon for another four years at least, following the decision not to go pro cycling from 2025.
