Another Big Win! Løvseth Hangs on For Close Win Over Philipp at IRONMAN Hamburg

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Photo: IRONMAN

She’s done five IRONMAN races and won four of them. After setting a new “debut” record (8:12:28) with her third-place finish at IRONMAN Hamburg last year, Norway’s Solveig Løvseth continued her winning streak with another big win in Germany today.

The day began with Lotte Wilms (NED) leading the way out of the water with four others – Brits Holly Lawrence, Fenella Langridge and Kate Curran were all within six seconds of last year’s IRONMAN Western Australia champ as they started the long run to T1, while Aussie Charlotte McShane was another four-seconds down. France’s Marjolaine Pierré was next out, just over three minutes behind, while the two women everyone expected to duel for the win, Løvseth and Philipp, finished the swim just under 4:30 down.

Lawrence would drive the pace initially, but it was Pierré who was the big mover on the bike. By the 35 km check point she was already in front, with Wilms sitting at 37 seconds down and Løvseth and Philipp a shade over four minutes down in sixth and seventh. Pierré would continue to pound away at the front, eventually opening a gap of 3:40 on Wilms and 4:29 on Løvseth through 123 km as the Norwegian pulled clear of Philipp, who was a shade over eight minutes down at that point. Over the final 50 km of the ride Løvseth would drive towards the front of the race, passing Wilms and steadily closing the gap on Pierré and opening up more time on Philipp.

By the time they reached T2 the Frenchwoman’s lead was down to just 37 seconds over Løvesth, with Wilms at 2:41, Austria’s Lisa Perterer at 6:52, Katrine Græsbøll Christensen at 8:15, India Lee at 8:42 and Philipp at 8:54. Lawrence was next in, but she didn’t head out on the run.

It didn’t take Løvseth long to move to the front of the race, and by the end of the first of four laps of the run course she was 1:34 up on Pierré with Philipp in fourth, 7:03 down. Løvseth continued to run strongly up front and at the halfway point of the marathon Philipp had only gained back about 40 more seconds – she had moved to third place and was gaining rapidly on Pierré, who was 4:29 behind the lead, but wasn’t making the kind of inroads she’d need to pressure Løvseth for the win.

The Norwegian still seemed to have things well in hand through the end of the third loop – by that point Philipp had moved to second (4:47 behind the lead) ahead of Græsbøll Christensen (6:42 behind), with Pierré in fourth (7:42 back) and Perterer in fifth (10:43 behind). It was over the last seven km that Løvseth finally appeared to be showing the effects of her big Texas win in April. With 6 km to go the gap to Philipp was 3:51, and the gap was down to 2:13 with just over a mile of running left. In the end Løvseth would cross the line in 8:11:11, 1:18 up on Philipp. Græsbøll Christensen would round out the podium in 8:15:20, while Pierré would hang tough for fourth (8:18:01), with Perterer taking fifth in 8:22:31.

Photo: IRONMAN
Pos Athlete Country Overall Swim Bike Run
1 Solveig Løvseth Norway 8:11:11 54:57 4:20:06 2:49:21
2 Laura Philipp Germany 8:12:29 54:53 4:28:21 2:42:16
3 Kristin Græsbøll Christensen Denmark 8:15:20 1:00:51 4:21:47 2:45:45
4 Marjolaine Pierré France 8:18:01 53:33 4:21:07 2:56:45
5 Lisa Perterer Austria 8:22:31 54:51 4:25:58 2:53:49
6 Lotte Wilms Netherlands 8:24:58 50:29 4:26:03 3:00:51
7 India Lee Great Britain 8:25:32 54:59 4:27:34 2:54:47
8 Marta Lagownik Poland 8:30:08 55:01 4:35:47 2:52:24
9 Fenella Langridge Great Britain 8:31:54 50:34 4:37:57 2:56:11
10 Kate Curran Great Britain 8:35:39 50:36 4:42:37 2:55:34
11 Charlotte McShane Australia 8:42:12 50:39 4:43:58 2:58:08
12 Kaidi Kivioja Estonia 8:44:44 1:00:03 4:30:16 3:07:01

Here are a few more takeaways from the day’s racing:

  • According to a report by Tri-mag.de a number of age group competitors got flat tires thanks to pieces of metal that were thrown on the bike course. This didn’t affect the pro women, but reportedly affected more than 100 age group athletes. We’ve reached out to IRONMAN for more details.
  • While we didn’t see a sub-8 hour women’s performance, Germany’s Martin Kodewitz won the men’s 35-39 age group in 7:59:55. His splits were 1:02:22/ 4:14:20/ 2:36:09.
  • Løvseth’s 4:20:06 bike split broke the previous record held by Daniela Bleymehl (4:20:47)
  • There are six Kona pro slots available at the race. Løvseth, Wilms, Græsbøll Christensen, Lagownik, Curran and McShane all have slots, so it would appear the slots will go to Philipp, Pierré, Perterer, Lee, Langridge and Kivioja.
  • With 12,385 points (her wins in Texas and Hamburg along with a runner-up finish at 70.3 Oceanside), Løvseth leads the IRONMAN Pro Series ahead of Lotte Wilms (8,511 points) and Fenella Langridge (7,822 points).

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IM Pro Series 2026
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So basically, everyone that finished got a kona slot.

great performance again by løvseth

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Uh no…They just showed the top 12 here, there were many more pro women in the race. And of those 6 quaiifyiers, they all seemed to have had good races and are top pros, several who will certainly add to the race in Kona…

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Everyone listed in the article truncated results got a Kona slot or already had one.
I see that Kivioja snagged the last one, on her full distance debut.

For the full results (20 finished). An extraordinary number of Pros DNFd (7) and given the reasonable conditions, I wonder if there was a common reason for the majority. I note 4 of them took over 69 minutes on the swim. We were told the water temperature was benign (?19oC). Air temperature was maybe 14oC starting the bike.

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Bike for show, run for dough.

Also, wonder why Lawrence DNFed in T2.

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Brunee punctured, made it to T2 on almost no air and DNFd after much loss of time.
Here’s her insta:
"DNF at Ironman Hamburg. :broken_heart:
"Unfortunately, my race came to an early end today after multiple punctures caused by metal debris on the bike course. Like many other athletes, I was affected by what turned into a pretty chaotic day out there.
"After the punctures, I somehow made it back to T2 with another almost-flat tire. At that point, continuing to compete wasn’t an option, so I decided to call it a day and make the best of it by running one loop of the marathon course instead. The atmosphere and support in Hamburg were simply too good not to enjoy :raising_hands:
"Of course, I’m frustrated. But that’s sport sometimes, and in the end, it’s just triathlon. There are bigger things in life, and luckily the next race is already around the corner.
"Thank you to everyone who cheered along the course today. On to the next one! :crossed_fingers:t3::snow_capped_mountain::switzerland: "

I note that 11 athletes ran sub-3. I wonder whether this is a ‘record’.

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Yeah has anyone heard what happened? She looked great for the first 2 hours or so

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If Dani Ryf’s comments mean anything the answer is “yes”,the first time 10(or more) women have run under 3hrs .

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Looks like some proper competition this year in the IMPS on the Women side :+1:

IM Pro Series 2026
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Just came across this article and it looks like a deviant may have sabotaged the course and the police are investigating. Metal splinters scattered across IM Hamburg course, hundreds of athletes suffer punctures - Triathlon Today

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So if we’re keeping track of who the current person impacted by the Lisa Perterer 2 mins late in Cozumel drama, the current occupant of that seat is now Jenny Jendryschik who came in 13th. She would have had a Kona slot if Perterer had been given one back in November.

If she winds up with a slot somewhere else, we’ll have to update it again

Arlette Gonzalez (the woman who got the slot in Coz) has not raced a full IM since, so she is still the current beneficiary

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13th place getting a Kona slot is as irrelevant as it can get. They are so far back, and even going to Kona is a horrible financial decision.

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Just for clarification. Jenny was 17th in Kona last year. She posted on Instagram that she was also affected by the metal shards. That surely cost her more time than the three minutes she was short of the last Kona slot. She rode 20min faster in Hamburg last year. That would have put her in contention for the top 8.

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good to see a new face that doesn’t just write nonsense !

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Following the chain like this was always going to produce marginal trades. Perterer was always going to get her Kona slot eventually - I’m just pointing out the sequence of impacts down the line. That the current person impacted happened to be 13th is irrelevant; she’s the current person missing out due to chain of events. If she’s a decent athlete she’ll hopefully pick it up elsewhere and someone else lower ranked will lose out.

Then at the end we compare whether the chain of beneficiaries to the chain of impacted athletes and see what happened. Though obviously people change their race season depending if they get a slot or not.

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When you posted that I went and looked.
Jendryschik was 36 minutes behind Loevseth and 25 behind Perterer.
Gonzalez was 37 minutes behind Perterer (#1 in Coz).

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Maybe, but as a pro getting a start in Kona is still a good way to get your name out there. And as we’ve seen in the past, if the front blows up hard, a few contenders DNS/DNF/mechnical, and someone gets to make a name for themselves in the top 10. It’s good for local sponsors, triclub/coaching, etc. And at a minimum for the pros it can still be the same, once in a lifetime prestige, “I’ve raced Kona” moment. I wouldn’t begrudge a pro that anymore than an age grouper.

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I’m curious to see where this goes. Usually there’s a sickness or injury from the top athletes and you don’t get to see this kind of what it chain happening - but here we can know what would have happened. At the end, it would be interesting to compare the ranking of who got the slot vs who missed out.

With 50 slots, you can assume that the top 35 or so will usually get it anyway (Perterer was assumed by us all short of a series of unfortunate events), but there’s some randomness on the bubble. Someone has a good day, someone else a puncture and it can change who goes.

Perterer falling out of Texas and Gonzalez not racing yet means that the chain is shorter than it probably should be. Hopefully Jendryschik and Gonzalez race again so we can continue the chain

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I think Jendryschik posted that she will race IM Kalmar.So we will see there how it goes

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that depends on so many things, just leave it to the individual what they can make of if. they might have a sponsor with a kona qualification clause etc etc you just never now as there is not one way how this works.
and you would be suprised what some athletes can get with one caring sponsor. or what other good athletes dont get .

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