Jon Breivold set a new men`s course record of 09:23:28 at Zalaris Norseman and XTRI World Championship 2022. The 27 year old Norwegian with semi-professional background from cycling seems to be impossible to beat at a course like Zalaris Norseman. Arild Tveiten, Head coach and Sports Director of the Norwegian Triathlon Federation stated a few weeks back that he could not think of any international athletes (except from Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden) that can beat Breivold on a course like Zalaris Norseman. Watch the full interview with Arild Tveiten here.
We talked about following interesting topics with Breivold:
- How good is Breivold?
- Can anyone beat Breivold at Zalaris Norseman and XTRI World Championship?
- A small challenge
Scroll down for the interview notes.
Notes from the interview:
Arild Tveiten:
I can not think about any international athletes who can actually beat Breivold on that course.
Fredrik Mandt:
It`s typical Norwegian weather.
Jon Breivold:
This is how I like it.
Fredrik:
A quite unique name.
Jon:
Jon, that`s quite easy, specially for Norwegians. And then we have Sæverås. That is the tricky part for the international guys I think!
Fredrik:
I like to play with numbers. I have created an excel file named Jon_Breivold_flatt_ironman.xls. My estimation is that you will do a flatt Ironman in 7 h 54 min.
Jon:
I think that should be possible, yes. In a flatt course next year I think I can do around 55 minutes on the swim, specially if it`s a good field and you get somebody to cooperate with on the bike.
Then I can do around 4 h 5 min on the bike. The run is a bit hard to estimate, because I have struggled a lot with injuries, but if I get to train consistent all winter and train spesific towards a marathon I think I can do 2 h 42 min. A little bit more than 2 h 40 min.
Fredrik:
You did Ironman Tallinn 2 years ago and there you ran a 2 h 53 min. And that was your triathlon debut?
Jon:
That was my first triathlon ever, a part from a local sprint training triathlon in Oslo. I did not had a lot of spesific training towards a marathon, but still I ran 2 h 53 min. Now, I have 2 more years of triathlon training and with more spesific training I should be able to run a 2 h 40 min marathon.
Fredrik:
I`m opening my excel file again for a new calculatation and now it says 7 h 45 minutes. So that will be your prediction?
Jon:
Yes, I think so. Next year.
Fredrik:
Let`s go back to Arild Tveiten. He was hugely impressed by your performance this year. And he stated that nobody can beat you in the Zalaris Norseman course, except Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden. What is your reflections around that?
Jon:
Yeah, I will agree on you with Gustav Iden. I think he would beat me at Norseman, but I`m not sure if Kristian Blummenfelt would. Because I`m not sure how good he is running uphill and a steep uphill like in Norseman towards the end of a long day. It could have been interesting to see.
If you think you can beat Breivold at Zalaris Norseman and XTRI World Championships 2023, think twice. Let`s repeat the message from Head Coach of the Norwegian Triathlon Federation: Nobody (except Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden) can beat Breivold at a course like Zalaris Norseman.
