Rudy von Berg shatters Ironman Florida course record

Heading into Ironman Florida, all eyes were on Challenge Roth winner and bronze medalist from the Ironman World Championship in Nice, Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev. In the end, though, it was American Rudy von Berg, who finished one spot behind Ditlev in Nice, who would provide the stellar performance, taking the win in a frighteningly-fast 7:34:41, almost eight minutes faster than Gustav Iden’s record set in 2021.

After a big group came out of the water together that included most of the favourites including Ditlev and von Berg, it wasn’t long before Ditlev’s famed bike prowess put him at the front. The Dane didn’t ride clear, though, and by the end of the ride, he was joined in T2 by Jesper Svensson (SWE), von Berg and his fellow American Matthew Marquardt, along with Poland’s Kacper Stepniak.

Ditlev started the run strong with von Berg alongside, but through the 14.5 km timing checkpoint Ditlev had started to fade, trailing the American by 24 seconds, with Marquardt another six seconds behind. By the halfway point of the run von Berg was almost a minute ahead of the American, with Ditlev over two minutes down with Stepniak on his heels. Stepniak would eventually pass Marquardt, too, but there was no touching von Berg as he flew through the marathon in 2:38:24 to take the win in that record-setting 7:34:41. Stepniak’s 2:45:41 marathon was enough to get him second (7:42:03) with Marquardt hanging on for third (7:44:27).

American Matt Hanson would post the day’s fastest marathon – 2:34:07 – to run his way to fourth, one spot ahead of Ditlev, who rounded out the top five.

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