Kona start list announced – four Ironman World Champions head the field

It’s the men’s turn to race at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. Based on today’s announced start list, we’re in for quite a race as a field of over 50 pro men will vie for US$375,000 in prize money, with the winner earning US$125,000 for their efforts.

Reigning Ironman world champion Sam Laidlow heads the field. The Frenchman won on home turf last year in Nice, and finished second at the 2022 race in Kona behind Norway’s Gustav Iden and ahead of Iden’s countryman Kristian Blummenfelt, who had won the 2021 world championship event (held in May, 2022 in St. George, Utah). Laidlow has been in excellent form over the last few months, winning the T100 London race in July and taking second at T100 Ibiza.

Iden won the 2019 and 2021 Ironman 70.3 world titles to go along with his 2022 Kona win, but has been injured for much of the last two years. He’s returning to form, though, having won Challenge Turku in July and recently taking second to Blummenfelt at Challenge Samarkand.  Blummenfelt bounced back from a disappointing Olympics to take the win at the Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt two weeks later.

From Olympics to Ironman in 2 weeks – after two year hiatus, Kristian Blummenfelt dominates in Frankfurt

The fourth world champ in the mix is Germany’s Patrick Lange, the 2017 and 2018 Kona champion. He finished second to Laidlow in Nice last year and won the Ironman North American Championship in Texas in May. (He was awarded the title after Tomas Rodriguez tested positive at the race.)

The four world champions will have their work cut out for them as the field includes a number of potential champions. On that list you can include Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev (third last year in Nice), American Rudy Von Berg (fourth last year), and France’s Leon Chevalier, who rounded out the top-five in Nice. Other podium contenders in the field include American Matt Hanson, who is currently leading the Ironman Pro Series and his countryman, Ironman Lake Placid winner Trevor Foley. Canadian Lionel Sanders, who won Ironman Canada in August, is looking to improve on his two runner-up world championship finishes (2017 in Kona and 2022 in St. George).

Here’s the full pro list:

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