Italy’s Mattia Ceccarelli delivered a standout performance to secure his first professional IRONMAN victory at IRONMAN Kärnten-Klagenfurt, Austria. The 38-year-old Italian has been racing IRONMAN triathlons since 2018, but had yet to take the tape – until this weekend.

Ceccarelli exited the water in third position before setting up his race with the second-fastest bike split of the day (4:09:06), putting himself firmly in contention heading into the 13.1-mile run. From there, the Italian held his advantage to claim victory, with Norway’s Jon Saeveras Breivold finishing second in 7:49:44 and Germany’s Florian Angert rounding out the podium in 7:52:35.

Saeveras Breivold recorded the fastest bike split of the day (4:08:15) and charged through the field after starting the run in fourth, but a swim deficit of nearly seven minutes left too much ground to make up on Ceccarelli. Angert, who exited the swim just ahead of the Italian, was overtaken by the Norwegian in the latter stages of the run but held on to secure third place.

At the finish line, Ceccarelli commented: “I wanted to enjoy the race. The last 40km on the bike, I was struggling a bit because I couldn’t fuel properly. But there were so many Italian people here and I kept pushing. Now I know why the Italians love it here!”

Top Five Professional Male Results:

1 Mattia Ceccarelli ITA
Swim: 46:33
Bike: :09:06
Run: 2:46:38
Total Time: 07:48:07

2 Jon Saeveras Breivold NOR
Swim: 53:20
Bike: 4:08:15
Run: 2:42:29
Total Time: 07:49:44

3 Florian Angert DEU
Swim: 46:30
Bike: 4:14:14
Run: 2:46:40
Total Time: 07:52:35

4 Milan Brons NLD
Swim: 49:58
Bike: 4:14:09
Run: 2:44:57
Total Time: 07:54:35

5 Gabriel Sanör SWE
Swim: 47:11
Bike: 4:18:44
Run: 2:43:13
Total Time: 07:54:57

IRONMAN Kärnten-Klagenfurt, Austria was a male professional race only. Anna Morsink was the fastest female age-grouper, finishing in a time of 09:21:35.