I’m sure I heard on a podcast his goal was to qualify for 70.3 Worlds next year - I assume mission accomplished with this win.

I just went to track the race now and see he one in a 3:19:30. //

So I guess he now gets the new half ironman world record, nice....

Crazy fast. Pretty good few weeks of racing for Hayden.

Olympic Gold and a couple hundred grand of PTO money could make for a very nice 2024 for Hayden.

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It is his second 70.3 after placing 3rd at Taupo in 2019.
IRONMAN 70.3 Taupo (2019) Results | SportSplits

He says he really wanted the 70.3 Worlds slot for Taupo 2024 so he can go back to his Olympic prep for next year.

Post Olympics it will be long enough to get ready for a serious crack at winning the World's in his home town race (he was born in Taupo)

Holy shit!! Very curious on follow up 70.3 races. Big fan of Hayden.

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I have not heard what the swim issues were, I presume the conditions meant it needed to be shortened, will find out soon from some friends over there what the issues were.
Can you get the WR if the course is shortened??
Like someone else has said, I went to track the race and see how he was going and he is already in!!
Being a Kiwi living in Australia now I do love watching him race and seeing his pretty insane (for a triathlete I guess!!) bike handling skills.

It's always good to see ITU folks showing us that they can bike equal or better than any 70.3 or IM "uber biker". It is unfortunate that the draft legal format gives the appearance that the bike is an easy leg.

Got grilled in the ITU thread for saying this but I am still of the opinion that drafting has to go in SC. We made this decision back in the late 90s to make the sport more spectator friendly, but let's face it...it is not working that well. We can put 40 guys in the Daytona track on TT bikes, it surely can be done in a 4km circuit. Won't be draft free perfect, but there will be gaps and it will make it more exciting. More importantly, we will unify the fields as there will be no excuses for both SC and LC athletes not to race something like Oly, 100k or 70.3. They could at least try a test event and see how it goes even on road bikes.

Can you get the WR if the course is shortened??//

Well since all the previous records are on short courses, then I dont see why this one doesnt get into the books. SO all a RD has to do is shorten their race a little more and they can advertise world record course too!!!

Swim was 900 meters.

So no, it does not count.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

So just to clarify you are now the judge.

Short distance but still water no records allowed.
Full distance but down stream ??? Where are we there?

What about if we took the transitions times out of Hamburg? Is that then the fastest course?

Kind of pink???

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Technique will always last longer then energy production. Improve biomechanics, improve performance.
http://Www.anthonytoth.ca, triathletetoth@twitter

I think a swim at less than half the normal distance is quite a bit faster compared to a with the current swim. They were swimming in the 11 minute range so definately no record. This is a normally very fast bike and run course also, is k own in Aus if you want a good race time go to Melbourne.

Oh for God’s sakes, can we kill the concept of “world records” in triathlon already?

Even Ironman, with its tendency to overhype things, uses the term “world’s best time” and does so with a wink.

There are no formal world records and also no reason whatsoever to get excited about a time on course A being faster than a time on course B.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

Says he slowed down at 10k seeing the gap and then shut it down at 15k when his legs got sore, lol. So what could've he run?

Race recap video

https://fb.watch/...Uy2/?mibextid=vG3cyz

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http://www.sfuelsgolonger.com

I assume he might race Bahrain next month 'for fun' - as will Watkinson. The women's race was far more interesting: the highlight being her late catch over an SC athlete.

Yup I agree.

I think what's most interesting is he won by 8 minutes, that's pretty big. Not the strongest field but Aus isn't a weak group of athletes, McKenna was there. Seems he could have won by 1 minute if he wanted to but just went for it. I also expected him to falter at some point, not lose the lead but slow down a lot. He didn't. I think second place got a few seconds at the end but he was multiple timing mats ahead by then

You vastly overstate my power on the matter. (and, for what it's worth, I agree with the whole "kill the world best time" POV -- it's so course / conditions dependent that it's not a good measure).

Just relaying what IM said itself about it.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

IM has now invalidated any courses that aren’t the “distance” (for “record” purposes)? Is this a new policy now?I remember was it Starky who set the IM bike record at Texas with what a 9x mile bike course a bunch of years back and IM insisted “it counted”.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Pretty sure their record keeping policy remains unchanged, which is that it needs to be within a certain percentage of the namesake distance for it to count. What that percentage is...well, it's like figuring out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop.

The world may never know.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

8 minutes over top-100 PTO types seems really good. Great way to close out his season & grab a slot for Taupo. He had said that he wanted to race that on home soil after the Olympics. Good timing for 70.3 Worlds in an Olympic year to attract someone like this.

Which 'old favourites' had you in mind? I'd anticipate those of such a mind, post Paris, to try to get wild cards to a couple of PTO Tour races. They won't be racing Taupo unless they've qualified in a 70.3 (which will not be part of the prep for Paris regime) and that'd have to be pre 1 July. Iden and Blummenfelt will have to validate before 1 Jul: a mercenary v reputational challenge for the latter when he picks his autumn races.
Or win the Olympics! (and get a wild card to Taupo (and Kona) without having to validate).
https://cdn1.sportngin.com/...ation_Validation.pdf
I see Thorn, McElroy and Stornes on the Indian Wells start list.

"the standard of post Olympics 70.3 races is going to go through the roof" - which current SC female athletes can you see racing MD post Paris who will make "it very hard" for Knibb, Gentle, LCB, Matthews, Findlay, EPB to compete? We've seen Duffy and Learmonth dabble with moderate success, but who else? I guess van Coevorden did OK but beaten by Watkinson who is at best a top 10 MD athlete. Stimpson and Løvseth are on the Indian Wells start list. If they wish to 'race for dough' then the PTO route is surely more lucrative and reliable.

I wasn't talking about the women as Knibb and Gentle started raising the bar two seasons ago.The rest of the womens field is responding and is why we are seeing the talent increasing in their races. It happens every time one or two athletes arrive and set new standards.The same will happen with the men.

As far as the "favourites",well I can think of four ST YouTube favorites who are going to have to lift their game dramatically if they want to be competitive at Championship races. Gustav and Blum have shaken the mens field up and more of that is to come,they have set the standard and I imagine that is why (according to the Indian Wells thread) three Norwegians are going to race there. Why send three guys to the USA to what is not a "big race" other than to try and secure spots for Taupo 2024?

Remember,not all the talented short course guys will get Olympic slots so once the federations have named names the rest have to figure out what they are going to do. As Wilde proved over the past two weeks,moving from an Olympic distance in to a 70.3 in a week isn't that much of stretch for these guys.Just imagine what these guys will do if they know they are out of the Olympic cycle at the start of the 2024 IM70.3 season?