There is no saving in big words. “Here history is made”, announces Chris McCormack. The 49-year-old triathlete from Australia, two-time Ironman world champion, is practically the boss of the project “Sub7 and Sub8”.
Two women, two men
“Sub7” – under 7 for men and “Sub8“- Under 8 for women. That means hours. And that’s for 3.86 kilometers of swimming, 180.2 kilometers of cycling and 42.2 kilometers of running. No one has ever managed the distance that fast. It’s supposed to be around 140 kilometers from Berlin Pentecost in Lusatia will be ready and a lot is being done for this.
The protagonists: Ironman world champion and Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt from Norway, Joe Skipper from Great Britain for the men, Katrina Matthews also from Great Britain and Nicola Spirig from Switzerland for the women. Plus lots of pacemakers. None of the German triathlon aces are there. A spokeswoman said at the request of the German Press Agency that each athlete was selected according to his or her ability to achieve the set goal. “Ultimately, it’s the ones who wanted to take part in the challenge.”
Various rules are suspended
The three-time Ironman World Champion Jan Frodeno had decided against participating long before his Achilles tendon injury became known after a corresponding request. The 2019 Hawaii winner Anne Haug is not there either. Neither did the world champion of St. George, Daniela Ryf from Switzerland, nor the three-time Hawaii silver medalist Lucy Charles-Barclay. She wanted to take part, but had to cancel her start due to a hip injury. Most recently, the two-time Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee also canceled.
Nevertheless, the current top athlete of the scene is at the start in Blummenfelt. At his Ironman premiere last year, he set the best time over the distance in 7:21:12 hours, albeit with a shorter swimming distance. He had thus beaten Frodeno’s 7:27:53 hours, which the superstar had set up in the man-to-man race under competition rules – i.e. above all without slipstreaming – in bad continuous rain in the Allgäu in the summer of 2021.
Pacemaker and perfect weather
Just under a month ago, Blummenfelt won the Ironman World Championship for the first time in the absence of the injured Frodeno. “An Epic Battle”, promises the 28-year-old Norwegian with a view to the race this weekend – one under laboratory conditions like Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-two-hour marathon in October 2019 in Vienna. Sunday (June 5th, 2022) is planned for the race day in Lausitz. If the weather is not suitable, Whit Monday will be used instead.
Like the other three professionals, Blummenfelt was allowed to choose up to ten pacemakers. Professionals in their disciplines, specialists, especially on the bike, where slipstreaming is strictly forbidden – and frowned upon – in competitions in the Ironman or Challenge series. There must be ten to twelve meters between the drivers.
Slipstreaming saves crucial energy
“The purpose of the ban on slipstreaming is that participants cannot rest in the slipstream of other athletes and thus save energy”, it says on the homepage of the German Triathlon Union with a view even to beginner races. The record attempt, however, will look like the team time trial of the Tour de France.
Up to 30 percent effort can be saved in a group in the slipstream. This is not insignificant in a sport in which, after the bike, it is important to have good legs in the marathon. It’s critical in an attempt to stay under seven hours for men and under eight for women. Blummenfelt wants to keep running under 2:30 hours: He has 3:33 minutes per kilometer.
But even in the water everything is designed for the best time. The almost four kilometers in Lake Senftenberg are practically swum in a straight line. Every turn and turn would take time. In addition, a thicker wetsuit is allowed, which provides additional buoyancy and thus speed. After switching to the bike, it’s almost 20 kilometers to the Lausitzring, on the race track you continue to drive and then run. Ideal conditions for record times.
Hardly possible under “normal” competition conditions
The event was created “to achieve a new world standard of physical achievement”says the organizer, who labels the attempt with the saying: “Defying the Impossible”. And if everything goes as expected, in the end it will actually be impossible to break the record set “in the laboratory” again in a competitive race with “normal” rules. The question of whether this really helps the sport in the end and whether it does not harm it, should at least be asked in the face of all record efforts.
Source: dpa/red