Alistair Brownlee won Ironman Kalmar in a blistering 7:38:48 to set the fastest Ironman time ever by a British triathlete.
It marked the latest chapter in a stunning return to form for the two-time Olympic champion, who had been forced to pull out of the year’s first Ironman World Championship with sickness in May and then the Phoenix Foundation Sub7 attempt in Germany through injury.
But after success at Ironman 70.3 Swansea a fortnight ago, the Yorkshireman stepped up to the full distance in Sweden to seal an 8min victory and clinch one of the final slots for October’s Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.
Brownlee posted a 44min second-fastest swim for the 2.4 miles, backing it up with a swift 4:09:54 bike split over 112-miles, before a 2:40:47 marathon did the damage as he pulled away from Belgium Pieter Heemeryck for his third Ironman victory.
The 34-year-old will now head to the Big Island to race for the second time, and will hope for better fortune than his 2019 debut where he laboured to a 3:13 marathon and finished 21st.
It has been some turnaround for Brownlee in the past few weeks after a miserable start to 2022.
After being overtaken within sight of the finish line in Ironman Oceanside 70.3 in April and quickly fading to fourth, he withdraw on the eve of the Ironman World Championship in St George, Utah with illness.
Due to then take on Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt in a quest to become the first triathlete to break 7hrs in the Phoenix Foundation Sub7 Project, Brownlee had to pull out little more than a week before with a hip injury.
Then having fought back to better health, he headed to the PTO Open in Canada and was leading on to the run only to be stricken with stomach cramps that reduced him to a walk and meant finishing a lowly 24th.
Victory in Swansea by almost 8mins was an impressive return to the top of the podium, and this win in Sweden is guaranteed to raise expectations for Brownlee’s Kona return and the chance to become Britain’s first-ever male Ironman world champion.
Top image credit: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images for Ironman.
