IRONMAN® 70.3® Venice-Jesolo triathlon, the fifth race of the IRONMAN Pro Series and the first European stop on the circuit saw a thrilling race play out on Sunday morning, with Panagiotis Bitados of Greece taking the tape in the men’s professional field, and SolveigLøvseth of Norway storming to an amazing women’s professional victory.
In the men’s race, Jannik Schaufler (DEU) was first out of the water, closely followed by eventual winner Bitados, Jonas Schomburg (DEU) and Simon Westermann (CHE). Bitados put on an aggressive display of racing as he took the lead early on the bike course, but the 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, Rico Bogen (DEU), quickly got to work, showing off his pedigree bike form, leading the 11-strong chase pack for most of the bike course. With a three-and-a-half-minute lead as he got on to the run course, the young German looked comfortable as he started running solo through downtown Jesolo.
Behind him, 11 men entered T1 within about 15 seconds of each other, and a chase pack including Main, Holm and Bitados began chasing down the former IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, with the 21-year-old Greek talent catching Bogen just past halfway on the run. An epic run battle then ensued, with both Main and Holm putting down blistering run splits to finish in second and third places respectively, with Main only six seconds behind Bitados. Bogen failed to keep the aggressive run pace up, and eventually fell to seventh place, with the likes of Sam Dickinson (GBR), Jonas Schomburg and Pierre Le Corre (FRA) overtaking him in the later stages.
In the women’s race, Lena Meißner, who was first out of the water, led for most of the Zoot Bike Course through the Italian countryside. Solveig Løvseth, who had been chipping away to close in on the German, eventually made a pass in the final third of the bike leg. Løvseth kept her cool as she got on to the HOKA Run Course, running strong and consistent to increase the lead over Meißner. As she took the tape, Løvseth not only had put over six minutes into the German, but she also brought it home in a staggering time of 3:53:22, one of the fastest IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon female professional finish times ever. Emilie Morier (FRA), who was fourth off the bike, managed to run herself onto the podium in one of the best races of her career, punching her ticket to the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Marbella.
Panagiotis Bitados of Greece commented: “That’s my first [IRONMAN] 70.3 for this year, and I am really happy to win... I had a bad, slow, transition, but then I found my rhythm on the run and then I catch Cameron [Main] and Emil [Holm]... and I ran to just finish second, but then I understood I was so close to Rico, so I said; ‘ok, let’s go to win’”
Solveig Løvseth of Norway said: “My swim was alright I guess, not my strongest discipline. On the bike, I knew that Lena [Meißner] was in front and tried to chase her for the first 60 kilometers, and then tried to just stay even all the way to transition. On the run, I didn’t get many splits, so you’re always afraid that someone is coming from behind, so I just tried to keep my pace high on the run... my main goal was to not blow off or I will destroy everything, so I tried to be a little more conservative and just enjoy as well, and it was I quite easy to enjoy it with so many spectators around, so yes a really great day.”
Top Five Male Professional Results – IRONMAN 70.3 Venice Jesolo
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Pro Series Points (unofficial)
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Top Five Female Professional Results – IRONMAN 70.3 Venice Jesolo
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Pro Series Points (unofficial)
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News and Notes????
- At just 21 years old, Bitados secures his second IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon win, after being crowned IRONMAN 70.3 European Champion in Tallinn last year. So far, Bitados has won every IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon race he has started.
- IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo triathlon will mark Løvseth’s third win over this distance; her prior victories being at 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 Indian Wells La Quinta and 2024 IRONMAN 70.3 Warsaw triathlons.
- Rico Bogen completed the 90km (56-mile) bike course in a staggering 1:53:34, breaking the course best time of Mathis Margier set in 2022 (1:58:55), and narrowing missing the fastest IRONMAN 70.3 bike split by six seconds (Marten Van Riel, 1:53:28, IRONMAN 70.3 Dubai, 2022).
- Løvseth secured the fastest bike split out of the female professional field, completing the course in an incredible time of 2:06:59, which was faster than 14 of the professional men.
- Lena Meißner was first out of the water in the women’s professional race with a time of 23.33, approximately one minute and 45 seconds faster than the current swim course best holder, Rosie Weston, who clocked a split of 25:14 back in 2022
- In the men’s race it was Jannik Schaufler (DEU) who clocked the fastest swim of the day in a time of 21:20.
- Olympian, Pierre Le Corre (FRA), secured the fastest run split of the day with a 1:06:37, and newly crowned IRONMAN 70.3 Valencia champion, Danielle Kleiser (DEU), claimed the fastest run of the female professional field in a speedy time of 1:15:16.
- The biggest movers and shakers in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings following today’s race were Jonas Schomburg, who moved 11 spots in the IRONMAN Pro Series to second place, and Maja Stage Nielsen who moved up nine spots to third place.
Full results for the IRONNAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo
triathlon can be found at:
ironman.com/races/im703-venice-jesolo/results For additional event information, please visit
ironman.com/races/im703-venice-jesolo.? ?
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.???
Panagiotis Bitados and Solveig Løvseth both walked away with the maximum IRONMAN Pro Series points available for an IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon of 2,500. Athletes finishing behind the race winner saw their points diminish by one with every second that ticked off behind the race winner. Rudy Von Berg (USA) still sits atop of the men’s standings, Jonas Schomburg jumps 11 places to second, and 15th place finisher Jonas Hoffman jumps 13 places to make it into the top 10. In the women’s standings, fifth place finisher Anne Reischmann moves from second to first in the standings, and Maja Stage Nielsen, who finished in sixth today, moves up nine places to sit in third.
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Male (After Five Events)?????
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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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Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR)
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Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Female (After Five Events)???
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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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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 five IRONMAN Pro Series race complete, a total of $500,000 has been earned by professional athletes so far – leaving just under $2 million USD to be claimed at the remaining events.?????
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Top Five Male Prize Money Earned (After Five Events)???
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IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo Prize Money??
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Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR)
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Top Five Female Prize Money Earned (After Five Event)???
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IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo Prize Money??
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Next Events Coming Up???
Next up is the highly anticipated and last ever edition of the Intermountain Health IRONMAN 70.3 St Geroge North American Championship next Saturday, May 10.