I read a few cursory points about Lange’s injury and his planned DNS in Texas. It seems pretty prudent. He said an MRI showed an inflammation of the adductor tendon. I am curious how that develops (one time trauma followed by repetitive use or just repetitive use with imbalances).
It seems prudent when all he has to do is validate before Nice and does not need to do a drag race
He does not need to validate as current IM champ
Oh, I thought if they won the Ironman World’s they get 5 years of only having to validate, but maybe I lost track of the latest rules after the shenanigans around Laidlow last year! Did they end up changing it last year?
Five years is no longer the thing, until it changes again… Now it’s auto qualify with no validation for the top slot. One year.
Dev
World Champ gets a slot without validation (Lange and Philipp)
Previous World Champs (since 2019) AQ with a validation (one full distance)
(AH, JF, DR, KB, CS, GI, SL, LCB)
70.3WC doesn’t get an AQ.
They did tweak the wording to deal with the Laidlow imbroglio:
““Validation Race” means racing competitively and being an official finisher in a”
I’ve actually had a very similar injury but unfortunately wasn’t as careful as Patrick. It led to a stress fracture of the pubic symphysis (where the adductor tendon originates).
For me it was caused simply by overuse. No trauma. It’s super common in football (soccer) players who use their adductors in turning, kicking etc. Rarer in runners but still possible if their technique is particularly reliant on their adductors.
Maybe Lange played soccer in youth and its flaring up now?