Gustav Iden , who won the IRONMAN World Championship two years ago when it was last held in Kona, saw his chances of a repeat impacted by a penalty for littering on the bike today (Saturday).
Penalties had looked likely in the first half of the 112-mile bike section as there was a near 20-man chase group trying to keep tabs on leaders Sam Laidlow and Magnus Ditlev.
But with RaceRanger draft-detection technology being used for the first time for the men’s race in Hawaii, drafting penalties had looked the most likely source.
However Iden was shown a yellow card for “unintentional littering”. That meant he had to spend 60 seconds in the penalty tent to add to an already hefty deficit.
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Iden had lost 3:31 in the swim after losing touch with the front group and – despite a much discussed new aero position on the bike – that only went out. Gustav Iden in action in Kona in that ‘superman’ position [Photo credit: Getty Images for IRONMAN] At the 31-mile point he was 6:53 behind Laidlow and at the 50-mile mark it was over nine minutes.
And unfortunately that trend continued – he was 20 minutes behind by T2 and would exit the race before the halfway point on the run.Iden has had a challenging two years – both on a professional and personal level – and had suggested in the build-up that a victory on his Kona return would likely be beyond him. Double trouble for Team Norway […]
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