Course Records Fall at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside as Taylor Knibb, Kristian Blummenfelt Fly to Wins

The third leg of the 2026 IRONMAN Pro Series took place at 70.3 Oceanside in California on Saturday. American Taylor Knibb and Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt grabbed the two wins (in a pair of course record times) despite both having raced — and won — in Australia just a week ago. The short turnaround and jet lag were not a factor for either of them, as Knibb won her third title in Oceanside, crossing the line in 4:01:39, while Blummenfelt dropped a remarkable half-marathon to stop the clock in 3:40:08.

Knibb’s Fast Start

The swim led to quite a bit of separation among pre-race favourites. Right from the gun it was Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes who took the lead, which she kept right to the swim exit. Lopes swam a 23:23 split (just two seconds off of the swim course record set by Knibb in 2022), but she wasn’t too far ahead of the next women, as a trio of Americans — Lara Hernandez-Tome, Knibb and Kristen Kasper — were only seconds back.

Spain’s Marta Sanchez was also in the mix early on, sitting 10 seconds back in fifth, but behind her, it was more than a minute before another pair of athletes hit transition. After that, another small group of four women emerged from the ocean together, all around 2:50 back of the leaders. That foursome included the 2025 IRONMAN world champion Solveig Løvseth of Norway.

It was about another minute before the next group of chasers made their way into T1. Canadian Paula Findlay (the defending champion in Oceanside) found herself a whopping 3:43 behind Lopes and co. At last year’s race, Findlay was second out of the water, turning Saturday’s race into a much different challenge than she experienced in 2025.

Schomburg Grabs Early Lead

Like with the women’s race, there were clear leaders among the men right from the start. Marc Dubrick of the U.S. led for much of the swim, followed closely by Germany’s Jonas Schomburg and Canada’s Brock Hoel. This trio exited the water pretty close to one another, with Dubrick recording the fastest split of the day in 22:24.

Around the halfway mark in the swim, the broadcast commentators noted that Blummenfelt and his fellow Norwegian Gustav Iden were 21 and 23 seconds back of the lead, respectively. While Blummenfelt held steady in that position (he finished 24 seconds back in 18th place), Iden faded considerably in the latter half of the swim, climbing out of the water in 26th place and 1:38 behind Dubrick and the other leaders.

Casper Stornes — the 2025 IRONMAN world champion and training partner to both Blummenfelt and Iden — had a great swim that left him in sixth, just 12 seconds from the front. American Ben Kanute (two-time 70.3 Oceanside champion) found himself inside the top 10 as well with only 17 seconds to make up after the swim.

Further back in the swim, just behind Iden, was Canadian Jackson Laundry, the 70.3 Oceanside course record holder (he won the race in 3:44:59 in 2022), and not too far behind him was American Sam Long, who emerged from the water with two minutes separating him from the front of the race.

Knibb Smashes the Ride

Knibb wasted no time in transition, moving into first place by the time she mounted her bike to start the 56-mile ride. After being only seconds ahead of her fellow lead swimmers as she started the bike, she was a minute and a half clear of anyone just 10 miles in.

After 15 miles, that gap was up to over two minutes. Sanchez was back in second place, but with no one to work with (third place was almost a minute behind her at that point), she couldn’t do much to keep Knibb from getting even further ahead. Further back, Findlay dropped out of the race very early on in the ride, ensuring that there would be no back-to-back champion at this year’s race.

With 30 miles to go on the ride, Knibb’s lead had grown to 3:21 over Sanchez, who was still all alone in second. Løvseth had made up for her lacklustre swim, climbing into third place with Denmark’s Sif Madsen just a couple of seconds behind her, but they were still four minutes back of Knibb with quite a way to go on the bike.

Just after the women hit the halfway point, Sanchez faded hard and fast, dropping to more than four minutes back of Knibb and getting passed by Madsen and Løvseth. Over the next chunk of riding, Knibb added about another minute to her lead. With 17 miles to go, she was close to five minutes clear of second-place Madsen and Løvseth in third. Sanchez had dropped to fifth as France’s Audrey Merle (who was racing just her second middle-distance race) passed her to move into fourth.

In the closing stages of the ride, Løvseth and Madsen had gained a bit of time on Knibb, but her lead was still over four and a half minutes. She hit T2 with a 2:15:27 bike split, smashing the bike course record of 2:18:00 that she shared with Daniela Ryf. Løvseth and Madsen also broke the previous record, riding 2:17:12 and 2:17:25, respectively, but they had a lot of work to do if they wanted any shot of catching Knibb before the finish line.

Long’s 20-Metre Debut

Schomburg took advantage of the long trot from the swim exit to his bike, moving into the lead. He set out on the bike course with a gap of 10 seconds over the next racers, and over the next miles he extended that lead.

After putting himself in such a great position after the swim, Hoel had a stroke of bad luck, crashing in the early stages of the ride and pulling out of the race. The race of course carried on without him, and the first half of the bike saw a lot of movement in the top 10 among the men. Schomburg held onto the lead, but the rankings behind him were constantly changing.

Britain’s Josh Lewis moved into second place over the first 10 miles of the ride, at one point getting within 20 seconds of the leading German. Kanute was in fifth after 12 miles of riding, with Stornes in eighth about a minute back and Blummenfelt not far behind him in 10th. Over the next 12 miles, however, Schomburg not only managed to pull away from Lewis (who was holding on to second place), but Long and Iden found the legs to fly through the field and move into the top five after their slower swims.

The IRONMAN broadcast featured a pre-race interview with Long in which he said he was excited to compete in his first race with the new 20-metre drafting rule. He said he has had tough races in Oceanside in years past, but noted that “20 metres might change it.” Long appeared to be right about that after blasting through the opening 25 miles of cycling and moving up to third place.

Not too far after the halfway point in the ride, Long passed Lewis to move into second place. At that point, he was 39 seconds back of Schomburg, who was still powering ahead in first. A little later, a long string of men caught up with Lewis, as Iden, Kanute, Blummenfelt, Stornes and more moved in and around a minute of the lead.

With 18 miles to go before T2, Long was less than 30 seconds down the road from Schomburg, who had been riding all on his own ever since the start of the bike. Only a few miles later, Long was suddenly just a few seconds back of Schomburg, but instead of blowing by the German, he opted to sit back and relax for a few miles. Further back, Blummenfelt was a little over a minute down and leading that long train of men in the chase.

With about eight miles to go, Long finally made the pass on Schomburg to move into the lead. Although Long may have been taking it a tad easier behind Schomburg for those few miles, they were by no means riding slowly, as they pulled away from the rest of the field as a duo, putting a lot of time into the other chasers, who suddenly found themselves 100 seconds back.

Schomburg did give up the lead to Long, but he didn’t let the American get too far away, tucking in 20 metres behind him and rolling into T2 just seconds back. After working his way through the field and moving to the front of the race, Long smashed Lionel Sanders’s bike course record by more than two minutes after posting a 2:02:04 split. (Schomburg’s 2:04:12 ride also beat the previous record.)

A large group of men ran into T2 about two minutes behind Long and Schomburg. This group included the three Norwegians, Australia’s Cam Wurf, Kanute, Laundry and more. There was plenty of run speed in that chase pack, but the chasers had a lot of work to do if they wanted a shot at the podium.

Knibb Cruises to the Win

After a quick transition, Løvseth set out on the half-marathon course 4:33 back of Knibb and almost 30 seconds ahead of Madsen. Further behind in fourth was Merle, 7:01 back, followed by Sanchez holding onto fifth around seven and a half minutes down.

Knibb ran extremely well over the first three miles of the half-marathon, cruising in first place and extending her lead to 4:49 over Løvseth. Behind the Norwegian, Merle had passed Madsen to move into podium position, but after those first few miles, Løvseth was well and clear of the French athlete, gapping her by more than two minutes.

That was how the top rankings stayed for the remainder of the run. Løvseth did make up a big chunk of time on Knibb, bringing the gap down from almost five minutes to under two minutes, but Knibb’s work earlier in the day gave her more than enough of a buffer to allow her to cruise to the win. If it had been an IRONMAN, there may have been a different result, but in 70.3 racing Knibb’s bike splits often prove to be the difference-maker.

She crossed the line in a time of 4:01:39, beating her own course record by almost five minutes. Løvseth finished in second in 4:03:34 and Merle dropped a fantastic performance to finish in third place in 4:10:33.

Blummenfelt’s Blistering Run

After an amazing ride, Long set out on the run course ahead of Schomburg, who struggled in T2. A mile into the run, however, the German had caught and passed the American to regain the lead. He quickly jumped 10 seconds ahead of Long, but by the three-mile checkpoint the gap was basically the same as the two men had settled into running the same pace.

Blummenfelt was running about 10 seconds per mile faster than the two leaders, but he was still two minutes back after the first three miles of the race. Kanute was in fourth (also two minutes back), Stornes in seventh (close to three minutes down) and Iden 12th (almost four minutes behind first place).

Many athletes may have been broken after climbing all the way to the lead on a 56-mile bike only to be passed immediately on the run, but Long reeled Schomburg back in just before the five-mile mark. They ran together, taking turns on the front. While they were battling one another, Blummenfelt was “a man on a mission,” as Mirinda Carfrae said on the broadcast, on his own in third. By the time they hit the 10K mark, the Norwegian had clawed to within 75 seconds of first.

At this point, it looked like it was a three-man race. The battle for the top five was quite exciting further back, with Germany’s Jonas Hoffman, Americans Jason West and Kanute, and Stornes all running together, but they were 2:30 off the lead and it seemed as though like they wouldn’t be a threat for the podium.

With five miles to go, Blummenfelt was 47 seconds back of Long and Schomburg, who continued to run shoulder to shoulder. A mile later, the gap was down to 35 seconds. At about the 10-mile mark, Schomburg broke away from Long, who was quickly overtaken by Blummenfelt. With two and a half miles til the line, Blummenfelt was within 15 seconds of the lead.

Blummenfelt made the pass at around 11 and a half miles. After that, he didn’t look back, flying to the line in a course record of 3:40:08. He dropped an unbelievable 1:07:01 half-marathon split, beating his run course record from last year by 18 seconds (only a week after running a 1:06:39 in Geelong).

Schomburg held on for second, crossing the line 3:40:32, and Stornes stole the final step on the podium from Long, passing the American in the final few hundred metres of the race. Stornes crossed the line in 3:41:58, just 11 seconds ahead of Long. West ran valiantly, but the gap was too much to overcome, and he had to settle for fifth in 3:43:17. The top nine men on Saturday finished under the previous course record to close out a very fast, very thrilling race.

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