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History was made on the Côte d’Azur, as Casper Stornes of Norway claimed his first IRONMAN World Championship title on debut at the 2025 IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, France, taking home $125,000 USD in professional prize money and 6,000 IRONMAN Pro Series points. Stornes stormed to victory, in a total time of 7:51:39, including running a blazing fast 2:29:25 IRONMAN World Championship best marathon time as he led a Norwegian sweep of the podium. Fellow countrymen and past IRONMAN World Champions, Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt, came in second and third respectively.

“I knew I had a chance to win, but I also knew I had some really hard competitors to beat,” said Stornes after claiming the victory. “I am just over the moon. They (Iden and Blummenfelt) have pushed me to the line for so many years. They are the best mates that I can share the podium with and I’m so happy. I had quite a bad transition in T2. When I caught them, they increased the pace out on the second lap. I just stuck to plan and ran a 3:30 (per km) pace and trusted it was too fast of a pace for now. I tried to relax the pace and increase it slowly. I didn’t believe it until it was 3km to go and by then it was too much time to catch me.”

The pace was on from the get-go as two separate packs of swimmers formed, with the lead group headed up initially by Jamie Riddle (ZAF), Andreas Salvisberg (CHE), and Jonas Schomburg (DEU). 2023 IRONMAN World Champion Sam Laidlow (FRA) looked to be well positioned behind Wilhem Hirsch (DEU) in the second pack, but in a moment that shocked onlookers, Laidlow came to a complete stop momentarily losing valuable seconds and the feet of stronger swimmers. Later explaining he was suffering lower back cramps, Laidlow was able to continue but never looked comfortable in the swim. Ultimately, it was Salvisberg who was first out of the water in 45:11, shadowed by Schomburg and Riddle amongst a group of 12 athletes that featured Marten Van Riel (BEL), and Casper Stornes. Plenty of pre-race favourites swam well, with Rudy Von Berg (USA) +00:52 down on the leader, Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) +00:56, Matthew Marquardt (USA) +00:59, and Magnus Ditlev (DNK) +1:00. Laidlow exited the water in company with fellow IRONMAN World Champions Patrick Lange (DEU) and Gustav Iden, all around two minutes off the front of the race.

In typical Schomburg fashion, the IRONMAN World Championship rookie took off through T1 and was first out on the ZOOT Bike Course, but his solo lead was short-lived, with Van Riel and Riddle quickly bridging up to the German to form a lead group of three. The story of the first 90km of the bike, however, was a reinvigorated Laidlow, recovering from his back issue to ride up through the field to join a chase pack that featured the three Norwegians Blummenfelt, Iden, and Stornes, as well as Ditlev and Nick Thompson (AUS). Lange struggled to make any in roads on the bike and began to lose time to the leaders – the gap blowing out to nearly 14 minutes by the halfway mark.

The front trio eventually broke up after 120km, with Van Riel putting the hammer down and pulling away on his own while Laidlow and Blummenfelt managed to gap the rest of their chase pack to swallow and then pass Riddle and Schomburg. By the 150km mark, Laidlow finally hit the front of the race for the first time, with Blummenfelt and Van Riel hot on his tail. The chasing pack of Iden, Stornes and Thompson tackled the descent strongly to reduce their deficit to just 40 seconds as the riders sped back towards town.

Van Riel was the first man off the bike, just seconds ahead of Laidlow and Thompson who made a late surge to join the front group. For the third year in a row, Laidlow who seemed like he may not make it out of the swim, fought valiantly and clocked the fastest IRONMAN World Championship bike split with a time of 4:29:29. Coming in just 20 seconds behind the front three were the Norwegian trio of Blummenfelt, Iden, and Stornes, setting up a run battle for the ages. Ditlev was the seventh man to finish the bike, more than five minutes down on the leaders.

The audience was in for a treat as a large pack of the top contenders exited T2 together and hit the pavement on the HOKA run course. By the first turn around 5K in, a pack of five that included Van Riel, Laidlow, Iden, Blummenfelt, and Stornes had broken away and with the group each taking pulls while the race appeared open for the taking. The Norwegians began to pull away by the halfway point, the trio running shoulder to shoulder, with Laidlow and Van Riel close behind. However, Stornes’ smooth and relentless cadence started to prevail as the world championship rookie began to put some distance between himself and his fellow countrymen, with Iden chasing close behind and Blummenfelt starting to manage some cramping.

Stornes would continue to extend his lead and cross the finish line first, also becoming the first athlete to clock an incredible sub-2:30 marathon in the IRONMAN World Championship enroute to his debut victory in the pinnacle event. Iden would earn second, while Blummenfelt would round out the podium completing the Norwegian sweep.

Top five professional men’s results:

Full results for the 2025 IRONMAN World Championship triathlon can be found at HERE.