Kona Chaos: Collapses, DNFs and Penalties to Podiums | Unfunded S2 EP26 (EP61)

This episode is sponsored by Official Beer Co.
Produced by Podfire.

Lockie and Lleyton are back after a huge weekend in Kona, and Lockie has a confession: he's now a long course fan. Lleyton caught the end of the run from a cafe after a long ride, and Lockie tells the story of his 18th birthday, when he and his mates painted Vincent Luis's name across their chests at the Gold Coast World Champs and Vince tagged him in a post.

The IRONMAN World Championship delivered chaos. Vincent Luis won Kona in his final race, after fourth places at IRONMAN Texas and Challenge Roth, and the boys look back on a career that took him from junior world champion to world titles and an Olympic relay medal. Taylor Knibb turned last year's heartbreak into an IRONMAN world title, a month after winning the 70.3 world title. Solveig Løvseth collapsed while leading, Magnus Ditlev started wobbling 30 K into the marathon, Sam Laidlow, Jamie Riddle and Lucy Charles-Barclay were among the DNFs, and Gustav Iden, Matthew Marquardt and Julie Derron all took penalties and still ran onto the podium. The boys ask whether athletes who collapse on course should be stood down from racing for their health, and whether Kristian Blummenfelt has passed Jan Frodeno as the greatest of all time, the question put to the audience at Pro Tri News's Kona panel.

Then it's back to short course with the Beijing World Cup, with Olympic points on the line and Max Duda, "the king of China", in the men's field. The boys give their podium predictions, both backing their training partner Brandon Copeland and Kate Waugh, and marvel at Gwen Jorgensen, 41 and still number one on the start list.