Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev and Anne Reischmann of Germany were the victorious athletes in the first full distance IRONMAN® triathlon of the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series.
In an exciting day of racing at the 20th anniversary of ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship triathlon, Ditlev and Reischmann walked away with 5,000 Pro Series points, $28,000 each, and a regional championship title to boot.
Men’s race
Hometown hero, Jamie Riddle led a four-man strong pack out of the water for the first lap and onto the Aussie exit. However, by the end of the ROKA Swim Course, it was Marten Van Riel (BEL) who had taken the lead.
Ditlev made his move out on the ZOOT Bike Course. The Great Dane put on his usual display of bike excellence, as he worked to extend the gap between him and the chasers. Ditlev entered T2 with a six minute and 30 second lead.
The other athletes could not chase down Ditlev on the HOKA Run Course. He remained untouchable as he stormed down the red carpet, taping the tape in a final time of 07:44:55.
“It was a really tough day, the wind made it super brutal and honest. You saw some huge gaps already on the swim which I felt I had a pretty good swim and swam with some good swimmers but the gap to the front four was a little bit larger than I had hoped but then again it’s also the best of the best short course swimmers,” Ditlev commented.
“I tried to pace the bike a bit more than I normally do so a little bit more conservative in the beginning and ride my own pace. I managed to catch the front guys one by one and then around 70/80k I got a gap and it was just full pedal from then on! It was very tough in the headwind and quick in the tail wind. Then on the run I said jokingly to my coach yesterday that I’d do the first half in 1:15 and then hopefully have a big enough gap to cruise a 1:20 home and I did that. Amazing crowd here in South Africa, so I’m super pleased to come away with the win.”
Women’s race
In the women’s, professional race, Marta Sanchez put on a pedigree swim performance as she quickly took the lead, swimming solo for most of the ROKA Swim Course. The reigning champion came out of the Aussie exit with a lead of 1:34 minutes.
Reischmann, who was 7th out of the swim, started to put down the pace on the bike, successfully making her way through the pack to take over third as she hunted down the reigning champion.
Reischmann, who went on to clock the fastest bike split of the day, continued to close the gap between her and Sanchez, eventually catching the Spaniard with less than 16km to go.
On the run, Reischmann appeared faultless as she took on the four-loop Hoka Run Course in downtown Port Elizabeth. With 10 kilometres to go, Sanchez picked up the pace and retaining her title was back in contention, but it proved not quite enough to catch the German.
Reischmann, who managed to clock a sub three-hour marathon, finally took the tape in a time of 08:51:41. Sanchez, as the reigning champion, would settle for second but improved on her time from last year by over 20 minutes.
“I’m just so incredibly happy, also really tired but really, really happy,” said Reischmann at the finish line.
“I had a really good swim, I was practicing the swim a lot the past few days and I really enjoyed swimming in the sea and so I just swam happy and confident and I think I had one of my best swims. Then on the bike I tried to stick to my race plan and stick to my numbers, just head down in aero. I was struggling towards the end and I saw Marta at the front and that gave me a lot of motivation and we got into T2 together. I might have started the run a tiny bit too fast, after 10km I thought this is going to be a long last to 20km but I’m just so incredibly happy to finish and to win!”
Find the full results for the ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa triathlon here. For additional event information, visit ironman.com/races/im-south-africa.
A free replay of the ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa broadcast is available to international audiences via proseries.ironman.com or IRONMAN’s YouTube Page.
