It was bound to be a perfect day in Denmark's capital of Copenhagen as forecasts predicted 20 degrees air temperature, 18 degrees water temperature and a light breeze on race day. Athletes couldn't have asked for better conditions as IRONMAN Copenhagen made a triumphant return after being postponed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some of the world's best athletes made their comebacks, too: Canadian Lionel Sanders, humbled by a tough race experience at IRONMAN Coeur d'Alene punched his Kona ticket clocking in at 7:49:24, only six (!) seconds slower than the 2016 course record by Patrik Nilsson of Sweden. A record that had been broken moments earlier by Sanders' long-time friend Cameron Wurf of Australia who had finished the course in 7:46:06.
The duo which had exchanged friendly banter before the race embraced their friendship and respective moments of triumph together at the finish line. Henrik Goesch of Finland completed the podium in 7:52:10 setting a Finnish national record for an IRONMAN race.
Cameron Wurf (AUS) shared his thoughts on the race: "I am really happy with my run and my swim was decent, despite losing time swimming the wrong way. Lionel (Sanders) and I got back into the race and fought it out. I haven’t been in this much pain for a while, but the Danish crowd was amazing, it feels like the world is back to normality after the pandemic”.
Lionel Sanders expressed his excitement after completing IRONMAN Copenhagen: ”On the bike I thought I would drop out on the run, but as I started running, I was running at a comfortable pace and then somehow the fire inside me got re-ignited, especially on the last 5 km."
The flat and fast course at IRONMAN Copenhagen was a great fit for Clemente Alonso-Mckernan (ESP) and Mathias Lyngsø-Petersen (DEN) who completed the top 5. Former German Olympic swimmer Lukasz Wojt (GER)got his record too, and set a new swim course record of 42:57.
1 Cameron Wurf AUS 7:46:06
2 Lionel Sanders CAN +3:18
3 Henrik Goesch FIN +6:04
4 C. Alonso-McKernan ESP +9:03
5 M. Lyngso Petersen DNK +9:32