Schomburg and Philipp Break Kalmar Records
The last professional full-distance Kona qualifier of the season handed out three Big Island slots in each category. It also produced two German wins. Jonas Schomburg won Kalmar in 7:22:57, taking almost 16 minutes off the course record. Laura Philipp did the same in the women’s race, by an even wider margin. And Sweden’s Robert Kallin put up a bike number nobody had seen in an IRONMAN before.
Schomburg: seven years of looking for a pacing plan
Schomburg was never a problem in the water or on the bike, even if that never turned into results. The problem was how he spread his effort.
The potential had been visible for years: third on his full-distance debut at IRONMAN South Africa, second at Challenge Roth, sixth at the world championship in Nice. This season he came home seventh in Texas and fifth in Roth, both times with the same diagnosis. He rode too hard too early.
In Kalmar he raced differently. He exited the water in the front group (44:57), made no attempt to chase Kallin’s break on the bike, and left T2 in third, 4:10 down on the leader. Ten kilometres later he was in front.
A marathon of 2:34:36 carried him to the line in 7:22:57. That is under two minutes off the fastest full-distance time on record, Sam Laidlow’s 7:21:04 at Challenge Roth. The Kalmar course record fell by 15 minutes and 51 seconds against Alistair Brownlee’s 7:38:48 from 2022.
Schomburg said afterwards that the cautious first half of the bike came from a suspected puncture. Whatever forced it, it worked.
I am so happy to have my first professional IRONMAN win, and that it came in Sweden makes it even better. I love the people and the atmosphere here.
Jonas Schomburg
Matthew Marquardt took second in 7:28:28, showing again that his strength is the last hour of a race. The American only got past Andrea Salvisberg two kilometres from the line and won that fight by 26 seconds.
| Pos | Athlete | Country | Swim | Bike | Run | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonas Schomburg | GER | 44:57 | 4:00:44 | 2:34:36 | 7:22:57 |
| 2 | Matthew Marquardt | USA | 46:30 | 3:58:50 | 2:39:50 | 7:28:28 |
| 3 | Andrea Salvisberg | SUI | 44:59 | 4:02:23 | 2:38:43 | 7:28:54 |
| 4 | Gregory Barnaby | ITA | 45:01 | 4:01:29 | 2:42:54 | 7:32:11 |
| 5 | Daniel Bækkegård | DEN | 46:25 | 3:59:27 | 2:46:23 | 7:35:44 |
The Kona slots went to Salvisberg, Barnaby and Bækkegård. Matt Hanson ran the fastest marathon of the day (2:30:59), and it was only good enough for seventh.
Kallin: 3:53:12 and the bill for it
Kallin came out of the water well behind the leaders, but by 30 km on the bike he was already at the front. Then he rode away from everyone. He averaged 46 km/h, the whole way in front of his home crowd, and reached T2 in 3:53:12.
That is the fastest bike split in IRONMAN history, 20 seconds better than Cameron Wurf’s 3:53:32 from Texas.
Kallin started the run four minutes clear and it was not enough. Schomburg needed ten kilometres to swallow the gap. The Swede finished outside the top places and without Kona.
That is the classic full-distance arithmetic. The bike can be won. The race cannot.
Stępniak in the front group, but no finish
Kacper Stępniak, thirteen days after defending his title at IRONMAN 70.3 Kraków, came out of the water in the front group and took turns at its head alongside Salvisberg and Schomburg.
On the bike he held on in the group chasing Kallin and rolled into T2 inside the top six. That is a position from which Kona is genuinely in play.
He did not carry it to the line. He withdrew on the run.
Worth noting who Stępniak had beaten thirteen days earlier in Kraków: Daniel Bækkegård, fifth in Kalmar and holder of a Hawaii slot. The level he races at is no accident.
Philipp: 8:13:37 and a message sent to Hawaii
Laura Philipp’s season had been cut up by injury and illness. Nobody would have guessed it from this race.
American Rachel Zilinskas led out of the water by more than three minutes. Philipp swallowed that on the bike and from then on the race stopped existing. The 2024 world champion rode 4:24:51 and entered T2 with 5:29 on Denmark’s Katrine Christensen.
The image of the day: Philipp on the six-kilometre Öland bridge, in a hard crosswind, sitting up off the aerobars to wave at the crowd.
Her lead kept growing on the run, and then she simply took her foot off. Her marathon of 2:52:57 is a long way from what she is capable of, and that is not an accident. Nice and Kona are ahead of her.
The final time of 8:13:37 broke Christensen’s course record from last year (8:27:49) by more than 14 minutes. The Dane took second anyway, which moved her into the lead of the IRONMAN Pro Series.
| Pos | Athlete | Country | Swim | Bike | Run | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laura Philipp | GER | 52:37 | 4:24:51 | 2:52:57 | 8:13:37 |
| 2 | Katrine Christensen | DEN | 56:29 | 4:26:23 | 3:06:08 | 8:32:22 |
| 3 | Jackie Hering | USA | 52:40 | 4:35:13 | 3:03:34 | 8:34:56 |
| 4 | Jenny Jendryschik | GER | 52:44 | 4:33:05 | 3:06:41 | 8:35:57 |
| 5 | Leonie Konczalla | GER | 57:59 | 4:32:12 | 3:06:37 | 8:40:17 |
The Kona slots went to Jendryschik, Konczalla and Milowsky, three Germans.
What it means before October
Philipp raced this like a training day with a bonus: a hard bike, a controlled run, legs deliberately kept back. If that is her form in mid-August, after a season broken by injury, she has to be counted in the top three on the Big Island.
In the men’s race the interesting question is a different one. Schomburg spent years losing full-distance races to his own pacing rather than to a lack of engine.
If he has actually solved that, rather than catching one good day on the back of a suspected puncture, the Kona contender list gains someone who can exit the water in the first group and run a 2:34 marathon.