Sam Long takes January PTO Athlete of the Month

A dominant performance at Ironman 70.3 Pucon nailed American Sam Long the first of the 2024 PTO Athlete of the Month awards.

Others in the running included Tauranga Half winners Hannah Berry and Jack Moody, along with Pucon champs Long and Marta Sanchez. A panel of triathlon media that includes Global Triathlon Network (GTN), Triathlete, Triathlon Magazine (yes, that’s us!) and Tri-Mag.de then pick their 1,2,3 from the shortlist – awarding 3 points for #1, 2 pts for #2 and 1 pt for #3. With triathlon fans also voting via PTO social handles, Long picked up 14 points to place first ahead of Berry and Sanchez in second and third respectively.

For Long, the race in Pucon served as a way to stay in shape through the holidays, and proves that the training changes he’s made bode well for his first race in the T100 Triathlon World Tour in Miami.

“Pucon was a great time,” he said. “I used the race as a motivator to keep me pushing over the holidays, where the tendency is to fall off. I was most pleased with a well rounded race and a great run on a very hard course. I changed several things in my training program and it showed me that these were positive changes.”

As the 2022 champ at Clash Miami, Long is looking forward to kicking the season off in Florida next month.

“The T100 Tour is super exciting. It’s our usual PTO 100km races, however the series adds in a demand of durability and consistency that I have shown great strengths in,” he said. “I believe in myself and my team to persevere all season. Miami and the Homestead-Miami Speedway is the perfect starting point; I know this course well, have won there in the past, and just have to keep the momentum going.”

Swim deficit

While there’s no arguing the race in Pucon was a good one for Long,  his success in the T100 events will be dependent on his swim performances. Last year he posted two fifth-place finishes at the PTO US and Asian Open events – in both he was well back after the swim and was never in contention for the overall win. (In Singapore he trailed winner Kristian Blummenfelt by almost nine minutes, and he was over three minutes behind winner Jan Frodeno in Milwaukee.)

At the race in Pucon, Long was 3:33 behind swim leaders Vincent Trewhela and Matt Sharpe as he hit T1. The swim at the T100 events will be a bit longer than the one in Pucon (2 km vs 1.9 km), which only adds to the importance of a good swim for the American.

When he won in Miami in 2022, Long was about 2:30 behind swim leader Jonas Schomburg, but used a dominant bike split (he was over 2:30 quicker than next-fastest Ben Kanute) to put himself in a position for the win.

Make no mistake – Long’s win in Pucon is a great start to the 2024 season. To compete through the rest of a busy T100 Triathlon World Tour, though, Long will need to make some headway with his swim splits.