Jan Frodeno Defends, Germans Sweep Podium At 2016 Ironman World Championship

By Liz Hichens

Germany’s Jan Frodeno defended his Ironman World Championship title today, turning in a 48:02 swim, a 4:29:00 bike and a 2:45:34 marathon to earn his second-straight Kona victory in 8:06:30. With the win, Frodeno becomes the 10th male to win more than one Ironman World Championship in his career and the fifth male to successfully defend the world title. The last athlete to successfully defend was Craig Alexander (AUS) in 2009. Behind Frodeno, fellow German Sebastian Kienle was strong all day but had to settle for second. Patrick Lange made it an all-German podium in impressive fashion, breaking the 27-year-old run course record along the way.

Race Recap
Jan Frodeno pushed the pace out front in the early meters of the swim, but several athletes were able to stay with him, making for a fairly large lead group coming into T1. Great Britain’s Harry Wiltshire was the first man out of the water at 48:00, leading a group of 12 made up of Andy Potts (USA), Paul Matthews (AUS), Marko Albert (EST), Denis Chevrot (FRA), Brent McMahon (CAN), David McMamee (GBR), Igor Amorelli (BRA), Andi Boecherer (GER), Tim O’Donnell (USA) and Tim Don (GBR). A second large group exited the water about 30 seconds later and contained several contenders including Terenzo Bozzone (NZL), Andreas Raelert (GER), Frederik Van Lierde (BEL), Ben Hoffman (USA) and Timothy Van Berkel (AUS). With the majority of athletes through T1, the attention turned to when 2014 champion Sebastian Kienle (GER) would make his way up the stairs, to his bike and onto the course. Kienle was 38th out of the water at 52:27, putting him 4:27 down from the leaders—a gap similar to when he won in 2014.

As that large front group took to the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, Kienle, Austria’s Michael Weiss and Canada’s Lionel Sanders were the fast movers trying to find those leaders. The size of that group made for dangerous conditions in terms of avoiding drafting penalties. At the first penalty tent, Van Lierde, Raelert, McMahon and Patrick Lange (GER) all had to serve penalties—taking them out of contention on the bike.

At Kawaihae (mile 42.7) before the climb up to Hawi, super biker Weiss was riding out front with Potts, Boecherer, Frodeno, O’Donnell and a huge group, that now included Kienle, trailing not far behind. German Boris Stein took a turn out front, but Weiss didn’t let that last as he found his way back to the lead.

The turn at Hawi is traditionally when the race breaks apart and that’s exactly what happened. Kienle was first at the turn with Boecherer, Weiss, O’Donnell, McKenzie, Potts, Frodeno, Hoffman, Van Berkel and Stein all in a close chase. At mile 75, the lead group continued to dwindle and now stood at 12 athletes, with all of the main contenders still in the mix.

The leader changed several times on the way back to town and it was ultimately Frodeno who came off of the bike in first. Behind him were Kienle (4 seconds back), McKenzie (13 seconds back), Hoffman (19 seconds back), O’Donnell (25 seconds back) and Stein (41 seconds back). With all of the other athletes more than 3 minutes back it became clear that the winner would come from this group of eight.