Magnus Ditlev of Denmark and Anne Reischmann of Germany are victorious in the first full distance IRONMAN® triathlon of the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series. In an exciting day of racing at the 20th anniversary of ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship triathlon, Ditlev and Reischmann walked away with 5,000 Pro Series points, $28,000 USD each, and a regional championship title to boot.
In the men’s professional race, hometown hero, Jamie Riddle led a four-man strong pack, including Jonas Schomburg (DEU), Andrew Horsfall Turner (GBR) and Marten Van Riel (BEL), out of the water for the first lap and onto the Aussie exit. By the end of the ROKA Swim Course, it was Van Riel however who had taken the lead. After taking a wrong turn in transition, Riddle lost precious seconds, meaning he started the bike course in fourth place.
In his debut IRONMAN triathlon, Schomburg was first on the ZOOT Bike Course, while a hungry chase pack of Van Riel and Ditlev were in his wake. At around the 60 mile mark, Ditlev made his move on the German rookie and moved into first place. The Great Dane put on his usual display of bike excellence, as he worked to extend the gap between Van Riel and Schomburg. Upon entering T2, Ditlev had over a six minute 30 second lead over Van Riel and Schomburg.
Van Riel and Schomburg entered T2 within seconds of each other, and it was the German debutant who was the first out on the HOKA Run Course. Racing neck and neck, Van Riel and Schomburg made it their mission to chase down Ditlev. Van Riel’s excellent run form meant he was able to drop Schomburg just before halfway, but it was not quite enough to catch Ditlev who remained untouchable as he stormed down the red carpet, taping the tape in a final time of 07:44:55.
Van Riel followed four minutes and 32 seconds after, with Schomburg nearly two minutes after that. Fellow German Jonas Hoffman came fourth, while local favourite Riddle, who had put two minutes into Michael Weiss (AUT) on the run, came in fifth, just enough to punch a ticket to the 2025 IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, France.
Ditlev commented: “It was a really tough day, the wind made it super brutal and honest. You saw some huge gaps already on the swim which I felt I had a pretty good swim and swam with some good swimmers but the gap to the front four was a little bit larger than I had hoped but then again it’s also the best of the best short course swimmers... I tried to pace the bike a bit more than I normally do so a little bit more conservative in the beginning and ride my own pace. I managed to catch the front guys one by one and then around 70/80k I got a gap and it was just full pedal from then on! It was very tough in the headwind and quick in the tail wind. Then on the run I said jokingly to my coach yesterday that I’d do the first half in 1:15 and then hopefully have a big enough gap to cruise a 1:20 home and I did that. Amazing crowd here in South Africa, so I’m super pleased to come away with the win.”
In the women’s, professional race, Sanchez put on a pedigree swim performance as she quickly took the lead, swimming solo for most of the ROKA Swim Course. The reigning champion came out of the Aussie exit with a lead of 1:34 minutes over Chloe Lane (AUS), which increased to 2:17 minutes by the end of the swim. Maja Stage Nielsen (DEN) was just over two minutes back from the Australian as she came out of the water in third place.
Sanchez continued solo on the bike with Lane and Stage Nielsen a few minutes back. Meanwhile, a hungry German in the form of Anne Reischmann, who was 7th out of the swim, started to put down the pace on the bike, successfully making her way through the pack to take over from Stage-Nielsen in third as she hunted down the reigning champion.
Disaster ensued for Chloe Lane around 48 miles when a flat tyre forced her to stop by the side of the road to navigate. With help from an age-grouper and the official race mechanic, she was back on the bike in 15 minutes, but it proved costly with dreams of a podium finish fading away as she dropped from third to 10th.
Reischmann, who went on to clock the fastest bike split of the day continued to close the gap between her and Sanchez, eventually catching the Spaniard with less than 10 miles to go.
In the meantime, Katrine Græsbøll Christensen (DEN) slowly but surely started to move her way through the field, as she picked off Maja Stage Nielsen, and Laura Jansen to move into third place.
On the run, Reischmann appeared faultless as she took on the four-loop Hoka Run Course in downtown Port Elizabeth. With 10 kilometres to go, Sanchez picked up the pace and retaining her title was back in contention, but it proved not quite enough to catch the German. Reischmann, who managed to clock a sub three-hour marathon finally took the tape in a time of 08:51:41. Sanchez, as the reigning champion, would settle for second but improved on her time from last year by over 20 minutes.
Christensen completed the podium, finishing seven minutes ahead of Reischmann and improving on her position from last year’s race by three places.
At the finish line, Reischmann said: I’m just so incredibly happy, also really tired but really really happy! I had a really good swim, I was practicing the swim a lot the past few days and I really enjoyed swimming in the sea and so I just swam happy and confident and I think I had one of my best swims. Then on the bike I tried to stick to my race plan and stick to my numbers, just head down in aero. I was struggling towards the end and I saw Marta at the front and that gave me a lot of motivation and we got into T2 together. I might have started the run a tiny bit too fast, after 10km I thought this is going to be a long last to 20km but I’m just so incredibly happy to finish and to win!”
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Top Five Male Professional Results – ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship
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Pro Series Points (unofficial)
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Top Five Female Professional Results – ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship
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Pro Series Points (unofficial)
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Katrine Græsbøll Christensen (DEN)
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News and Notes????
- Magnus Ditlev’s victory marked his second ever IRONMAN triathlon win, with his first win being at IRONMAN Cozumel back in 2022.
- Anne Reischmann enjoyed back-to-back victories after also taking the tape at IRONMAN Cozumel last November, proving she is absolutely one to watch this year.
- While reigning champion, Marta Sanchez may not have been able to retain her title, she should be proud to slice off over 20 minutes off last years' time of 9:15:36.
- Marten Van Riel had the fastest swim of the day in a time of 50:17, with Marta Sanchez clocking the fastest time in the women’s professional race (57:28)
- Magnus Ditlev set the fastest bike split of the day (4:07:22), while Marten Val Riel clocking the fastest marathon of the day in a sizzling 2:38:40.
- Anne Reischmann set both the fastest bike split of the day in the female professional field (4:43:31) and the fastest female run split of the day 2:59:15. She was also the only woman to break a sub three-hour marathon.
- Reigning men’s champion, Ramus Svenningson did not start due to feeling unwell overnight, and Mathias Lyngsø Petersen took himself out of the race after experiencing a mechanical on the bike.
Full results for the ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa triathlon can be found at
ironman.com/races/im-south-africa/results For additional event information, please visit
ironman.com/races/im-south-africa.
IRONMAN Pro Series Standings???
The IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based triathlon race series with professional triathletes being able to earn points at 18 select races in 17 locations globally. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the IRONMAN Pro Series ushers in a new era of IRONMAN racing where Every Second Matters™ with every second behind the race winner equating to a point earned or lost. For any athlete, only their top five event results count towards their overall Pro Series points and standing, of which a maximum of three IRONMAN results can be counted. How it works can be found
here.???
Victories for Ditlev and Reischmann ensured both athletes walked away with the maximum IRONMAN Pro Series points available for an IRONMAN of 5000. This weekend’s results mean both athletes take an early lead in the overall IRONMAN Pro Series standings. Athletes finishing behind the race winner saw their points diminish with every second that ticked off behind the race winner.
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Male (After One Event)?????
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Total IRONMAN Pro Series Points (Max Top 5 events)
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Total Eligible Races Scored
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Eligible IRONMAN Races Scored
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Eligible IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored
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Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Female (After One Event)???
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Total IRONMAN Pro Series Points (Max Top 5 events)
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Total Eligible Races Scored
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Eligible IRONMAN Races Scored
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Eligible IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored
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Katrine Græsbøll Christensen (DEN)
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Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS)
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Full IRONMAN Pro Series standings can be found at proseries.ironman.com.??? ?
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Event Prize Money???
In addition to the IRONMAN Pro Series’ $1.7M year-end bonus prize pool, there is an event pro prize purse payout of $2,450,000, distributed across IRONMAN Pro Series events. With the first IRONMAN Pro Series race complete, a total of $225,000 has been earned by professional athletes so far – leaving $2.3M to be claimed at the remaining events.
Top Five Male Prize Money Earned (After One Event)???
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ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship Prize Money
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Top Five Female Prize Money Earned (After One Event)???
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ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship Prize Money
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Katrine Græsbøll Christensen (DEN)
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Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS
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Next Events Coming Up??? With the second race of the IRONMAN Pro Series calendar complete, next up is the highly anticipated Athletic Brewing IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside triathlon returning on Sunday 6 April, which will complete three weekends of consecutive IRONMAN Ro Series racing.
A free replay of the ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship broadcast is available to international audiences via
proseries.ironman.com or IRONMAN’s YouTube Page, and on?
Outside+ for those watching from the United States and Canada.?