An exciting race with many lead changes ends with two sub 8-hour finishes and a new course champion.
IRONMAN Copenhagen featured 43 male professional athletes in its first running as a male pro only race. A little fog blurred the sight on the swim, but the sunshine was out for the rest of the fourth annual race in the capital city of Denmark.
After 3.8 km in the water, Igor Amorelli (BRA) came out first in 00:47:38. Andreas Raelert (GER) was second (00:47:42) followed by Will Clarke (GBR) in third position (00:47:46). Amorelli kept his lead out on the bike as he was chased by a strong group consisting of Will Clarke (GBR), Fabio Carvalho (BRA), Raelert, Alberto Casadei (ITA), and Patrik Nilsson (SWE).
At 55km Raelert took over the leading position on the bike, but only 10km later Carvalho rode up to the top. Many changes occurred in the lead spot amongst this group including Nilsson and Amorelli, but at 140km Raelert overtook them and didn’t give up his top position again going into T2. The top three on the bike consisted of Raelert, Nilsson, and Carvalho increasing a gap over the chasing group.
Raelert made it to T2 first but thanks to a fast transition Nilsson was the first heading out on the marathon. Until the half marathon split the top three stayed the same with Raelert in second and Carvalho in third. Raelert was unable to keep his pace, though, and Carvalho overtook him at 25km. While Nilsson ran the race of his life and increased the gap between him and his chasers to over eight minutes Raelert fell back and Clarke came from behind running even up at the second position.
The crown of an incredibly exciting and fast race was taken by Patrik Nilsson who finished with a sub 8-hour finish in 07:49:18 and set a new course record at the IRONMAN Copenhagen. Will Clarke also managed to secure a sub 8-hour finish in second place with a time of 07:59:31. The podium was rounded out with Fabio Carvalho in third place in 08:07:10.
Top 5 Pro Men
1 Nilsson, Patrik SWE 7:49:18
2 Clarke, Will GBR 7:59:31
3 Carvalho, Fabio BRA 8:07:10
4 Casadei, Alberto ITA 8:12:53
5 Amorelli, Igor BRA 8:13:02