“A megastar in the making” – Mark Allen on Kristian Blummenfelt

Kristian Blummenfelt is triathlon’s “next megastar in the making” according to six-time Kona king Mark Allen.

The Norwegian ace completed a quite unbelievable 2021 by romping to victory at CLASH Daytona last weekend. Earlier this year he had claimed Olympic gold in Tokyo, a WTCS World title in Edmonton and the fastest ever Ironman time in Cozumel.

Allen has spoken at length recently about the fascinating long-distance landscape, which has Blummenfelt and Norwegian team-mate Gustav Iden set to challenge current GOAT Jan Frodeno in next May’s delayed 2021 IRONMAN World Championship in St George.

This week though Allen had his focus on Blummenfelt, and he is wowed by what the 27-year-old from Bergen has been able to produce this year.

“Kristian Blummenfelt is putting his stamp on the sport. He is the next mega star in the making in triathlon,” he said during his ‘Mondays With Mark Allen’ video on YouTube.

Blummenfelt ‘incredible’

“He has showed this, this year he won the [Olympic] gold medal, he won the ITU Worlds, he won his first IRONMAN (Cozumel), he just won CLASH Daytona. Daytona came one day shy of two weeks after that he did that 7:21 in Cozumel – incredible!”

Allen produced some context to that 13-day turnaround for Blummenfelt, comparing it to his own experiences when racing at the highest level over full distance.

“When I was racing, it took me two weeks after an IRONMAN to feel like I could get up off the couch. He goes out and wins a race that is 100km total of racing distance, for around 18km (11 miles) he averaged a 5:13 mile, 3:14 per km pace the entire way – 18km – and he did it just shy of two weeks after running a 2:35 marathon.

“It’s not like he just did an IRONMAN and sort of cruised through it – he crushed and as you know the faster you run, the more recovery time you need.”

Now Blummenfelt has his sights on the two IRONMAN World Championship events scheduled for 2022, as well as going for Sub7 along with Alistair Brownlee during the summer.

Going for it all in 2022

Allen said: “He wants to win everything next year – he wants to win 70.3 worlds, he wants to win KONA. Do I think he can do it? We will see.  

“The slight asterisk on his victory was that there was no Jan Frodeno, there was no Patrick Lange, a few others were missing that can run very, very fast – what about his fellow countryman Gustav Iden, he was also not there. 

“The real match up that we’re looking for next season is for those four guys plus Sam Long and Lionel Sanders and having all of them line up on an IRONMAN start line.”