A closer look at the fastest gear of 2024

Gear isn’t everything in triathlon, but there’s no denying that certain items can help you perform better and go faster on race day. After an incredible year of triathlon, there have been so many different wetsuits, bikes, running shoes, and other pieces of gear that have helped the world’s best triathletes fly to big wins. Looking at the fastest splits from the Ironman and 70.3 worlds, here is some of the best gear of 2024 that could help you reach new heights next year.

Wetsuits

At the 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand, the fastest swim splits went to Spain’s Sara Perez Sala and 21-year-old age group triathlete Leo Ouabdesselam of France. Perez Sala is often first out of the water when she races, which is no surprise considering her past as an Olympic swimmer. This year, she raced in an Orca Apex Flex wetsuit, which helped her to a 24:20 swim split in Taupo.

 

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Ouabdesselam beat all of the pro men with his ridiculous 21:25 split. This was a whopping 23 seconds faster than the fastest pro racer’s swim result, and it was the start of Ouabdesselam’s age group win in the 18 to 24 category. He wore a Mako Ultimate Torrent wetsuit to help propel him into T1.

In Nice, France, at the women’s Ironman World Championship, Great Britain’s Fenella Langridge sported an Arena Storm wetsuit to swim to a race-best time of 49:13 over the 3.8-kilometre course. In Kona, it was another age grouper who stole the show in the water, as 21-year-old Australian Sam Askey-Doran crushed the previous swim course record by 46 seconds with a 45:43 showing. He wore a Venom Triathlon Swim Skin from Rocket Science Sports to help him break the record.

Bikes

Three of the four fastest bike splits of the Ironman and 70.3 world championships belonged to the Canyon Speedmax. New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde rode the Speedmax to a 1:58:51 90-kilometre bike split in Taupo, France’s Sam Laidlow used the Speedmax to set a new Kona bike course record of 3:57:22, and Laura Philipp of Germany laid down a 5:02:25 bike split on her way to the Ironman world title in Nice.

The only outlier is Taylor Knibb, who rode her trusty Trek Speed Concept, the same ride she has used to hammer so many bike courses around the world in recent years. She built a massive lead on the Speed Concept in Taupo, covering the 90-kilometre course in 2:10:09 on her way to a third straight 70.3 world crown.

Running shoes

Four different companies were represented among the top runners at the Ironman and 70.3 worlds. Germany’s Daniela Kleiser wore the Puma Nitro Elite 3 Ekiden to drop a wildly impressive 1:14:15 half-marathon split in Taupo (giving her the fastest run of the day by more than a minute). Belgium’s Jelle Geens needed a big performance on the run to chase down Wilde, and his On Running Cloudboom Strike shoes helped him do just that. He dropped a 1:07:34 run split to carry him to the world title in exciting fashion.

In addition to posting the fastest bike of the day in Nice, Philipp had the fastest run with a 2:44:59. She wore New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Pacer V2 shoes to get the job done and lift her to the world championship crown. Finally, in Kona, Germany’s Patrick Lange used a 2:37:34 marathon to blast to his third Ironman world title. He wore Adidas Adios Pro Evo 1 shoes to get him from T2 to the finish.