Jan Frodeno, a record Ironman: "I have busted legs"

[Inkriql]

Jon Frodeno, 2008 Olympic champion in Beijing, won his third Ironman World Championship this morning in Kona (Hawaii). He did, at 38, spraying the race record: 7h 51m 13s. In less than a minute, he lowered the mark that his compatriot, German Patrick Lange, signed last year: 7 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds. No one, until then, had come down from eight o'clock in Kona. Lange did it and Frodeno did it. "I have busted legs," he conceded at the end of the test.

Frodeno made a good swim section (3.8 km) and extended distances with its rivals in the 180 kilometers of bicycle. He started the marathon (42.2 km) with more than two minutes ahead and managed to finish that phase in 2 hours and 42 minutes. 42 minutes slower than Kipchoge ... but having swum and rolled a bike before.

The German athlete had already won the World Cup in 2015 and 2016. "I do not care about the record. It is a championship, the Wimbledon of our sport," he said at dawn after a race that leads to the limit, as Gomez acknowledged last year -Not now. The Spaniard has parked the Ironman for a while to prepare for the Tokyo Games, the only title he lacks. Eneko Llanos was the best Spanish this year in Kona and finished in 29th place.

The American Tim O'Donnell was second to eight minutes; third was the German Sebastian Kienle. The Kona test again certified German dominance: they have won the last six world championships: Patrick Lange in 2017 and 2018 and Kienle in 2014, in addition to those achieved by Frodeno. In the women's category also won a German, Anne Haug, in 8h 40m 10s.