Can we say Magnus Ditlev holds the full-distance world best?
Danish star takes third straight title in Roth and sets another course record

Last year, when Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev went 7:24:40 to set a new course record at Challenge Roth, the age-old argument of “world records” was reignited. Ditlev’s time was slower than Kristian Blummenfelt’s 7:21:12 time at Ironman Cozumel in 2021, but even as we were writing the headline for the story on the Norwegian’s incredible race back then, we just assumed the record wouldn’t be recognized. That’s because the swim in Cozumel was down current – Blummenfelt was out of the water in under 40 minutes.
Ironman would later acknowledge Blummenfelt’s time as the “Ironman world best,” which was a bit of a surprise because of that down-current swim.
At the heart of the “world best” issue is the fact that most triathlon courses aren’t certified. World Athletics has a strict set of criteria that a course must meet before a performance can be “considered eligible for top lists, entry standards, world rankings and world records.” The courses need to hold a valid International Course Measurement Certificate, can’t be too far apart if they are a point-to-point course (can’t be further apart than 50% of the race distance) or have an elevation drop of more than 1 m per km. It seems doubtful that triathlon’s organizing bodies have much interest in trying to enforce any similar types of criteria at triathlon races, though, so we’re likely to be living with the debates on what are the fastest triathlon times for a long time to come.
All of that said, the folks at Challenge Roth are quite happy to say that Magnus Ditlev just set another world-best time with his 7:23:24 time in Bavaria today. That put the Dane 14:30 ahead of the next fastest finisher, Great Britain’s Thomas Bishop, who completed his second full-distance race in an impressive 7:37:54, with American Rudy Von Berg rounding out the podium with his 7:38:30 finish.
It also adds Ditlev’s name to an exclusive list of men who have managed the three-peat in Roth – Lothar Leder and Chris McCormack
Here’s the list of the Top 10_Men from Challenge Roth. You can see the full results here.
Lange out with rib injury
The man considered most likely to put Ditlev under pressure for his third-consecutive title, Germany’s Patrick Lange, ended up pulling out of the race early in the bike after sustaining bruised ribs after he was kicked during the swim.
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Lange wasn’t the only pre-race favourite who would pull out of the race – Ditlev’s countryman, Daniel Baekkegard, would pull out after crashing during the bike in the rainy conditions.
Ditlev dominates on the bike and run
After finishing the swim in seventh, Ditlev was unstoppable through the rest of the race. He was I the lead by 15 km in to the bike, and his 3:59:25 bike split might have been a couple of minutes slower than last year, but was still over six minutes faster than the chase group managed. Ditlev followed that bike split up with a 2:34:18 marathon, by far the fastest men’s split of the day. (Scarily enough, the second-fastest marathon of the day was run by Anne Haug – see the story on her incredible race below.)
Anne Haug shatters world best time and almost breaks 8 hours at Challenge Roth
“Everything went really well for me today,” said Ditlev at the finish. “Of course I know the course a bit by now. That was certainly an advantage. But the spectators were once again phenomenal and spurred me on to this great performance.”
According to Ditlev, he knew he was on track for a big day after the swim, where he was closer to the front than he had expected.
“I was then able to take the lead relatively quickly and run my own race,” he said.
That “own race” is now arguably the fastest ever full-distance time the world has ever seen. Roth has long been renowned as the home of the “world records” when it comes to full-distance racing. Who knows, maybe the Dane will put all this to rest with a sub 7:20 performance and his fourth win in a row next year.