Norwegian super stars Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden have actually verified they will go all in on the IRONMAN Pro Series in 2025.
Blummenfelt's primary preliminary objective this year was the Paris 2024 Olympics, however he then won in exceptional style on his full-distance return at IRONMAN Frankfurt just to suffer at Kona when fought hard to complete the IRONMAN World Championship in 35th location.
Iden too had a difficult time in Hawaii, with a DNF on the run, however the set each have an IMWC title to their name and have actually likewise won 3 of the last 4 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships.
They've likewise mastered PTO races recently– Iden leading a one-two at the Canadian Open in 2022, while Blummenfelt won the Singapore Open in 2015 en path to topping the PTO world rankings for a 2nd season in a row.
There had actually been speculation that they might be included in the T100 next season however that now appears to be off the program, bar the odd wildcard.
It's a prospective blow for T100 who have actually lost another of their greatest makes use of the males's side for 2025 with this week's news that double Olympic champ Alistair Brownlee, 3rd in the T100 Grand Final in Dubai recently, has actually now retired.
It highlights that there will likely be much more of a clear split in terms of which series the leading professional athletes race rather than attempting to integrate both– as the likes of Kat Matthews and Magnus Ditlev have actually done to excellent result in 2024.
2025 strategies exposed
Blummenfelt and Iden's coach Olav Aleksander Bu informed us just recently that both are going for the IRONMAN Pro Series– and the males's IRONMAN World Championship which will be kept in Nice in 2025.
He stated: “Gustav and Christian have actually currently stated that for them the IRONMAN Pro series is something they are going to target next year, that's the objective.”
And on the current Santara Tech podcast, which is ingrained listed below, the duo offered some more information on that when inquired about race strategies.
“Oceanside, Texas, Frankfurt, Nice and 70.3 World Champs possibly,” was Kristian's response.
That would tick the present requirements for the Pro Series completely, with Texas, Frankfurt and Nice all full-distance races.
“I'm leaning the exact same method,” included Gustav. “It would not make good sense to do various ones. If we're doing the exact same training school then it would be extremely difficult to make the Pro Series fit any other method.”
Both guys fasted to mention that the format of the Pro Series must match well too as the points are figured out by time behind the winner instead of ending up positions so going head-to-head would not injure either of their possibilities. Gustav discussed: “The Pro Series is every 2nd counts, it's not like every location counts.
“If both people remain in shape then we take pleasure in showing up at the exact same races,” included Kristian– so get the popcorn all set for some more wonderful Norwegian fights in 2025.
