Triathletes take center stage and break records in a Sub7/Sub8 event outside Dresden, Germany

On June 5th, 2022, men Kristian Blummenfelt and Joe Skipper alongside women Kat Matthews and Nicola Spririg set out to achieve the extraordinary. Four iconic endurance athletes, with help from forty pacemakers, pushed through a grueling 226-kilometer Ironman Triathlon in record time. Pho3nix Sub 7 and Sub 8 Project challenged participants to complete a 3.86-kilometer swim, 180.2-kilometer cycle, and 42.2-kilometer in under seven and eight minutes, respectively.

Based on World Triathlon rules, the Brandenburg-based event featured pacers, a racetrack, and custom-made equipment. The final results concluded with all four endurance athletes achieving their sub-seven-hour and sub-eight-hour goals, a first in the sport of triathlon. Competitors had help from some of the best athletes in the world. Thanks to their support, the four athletes better determined their pace and conserved energy throughout the race.

Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt and the UK’s Skipper fought hard to complete the race in under seven hours. Neck and neck most of the race, the two men leveraged years of training to reach the finish line under the seven-hour time frame. Blummenfelt made gains during the running leg to win the men’s side with an impressive time of 6:44:25.

“A massive thanks to Joe and his team for the tough battle,” Olympic Gold Medalist and Ironman World Champion Blummenfelt said. “Luckily, we managed to sneak just in front – another thanks to the Pho3nix Foundation for organizing this. It’s been an epic challenge.”

On the women’s side, the UK’s Kat Matthews dug deep to finish over Switzerland’s Nicola Spririg with a time of 7:31:54. Matthews ran an evenly-paced marathon – but Spirig completed the run one minute faster. However, a three-minute loss on the cycling portion handed Matthews a solid victory. A British Army Elite Athlete, Matthews continues to dominate the event with support from her family.

“My husband said, ‘you can.’ And I was like ‘I can.’ So, I just had that moment of realisation that actually, I shouldn’t just give up and let her go,” sub-8 triathlete Kat Matthews reflected on her first-place performance.

Created to set a new world standard of human physical achievement, The Pho3nix Sub 7 and Sub 8 Project combines technical innovation, planning, and strategy to maximize performance. The groundbreaking event set a new benchmark for what the world’s best athletes can achieve. The race further drove mainstream coverage of the sport focusing on the data and science behind athletic success.

The swimming portion of the race took place in Lake Senftenberg, a 1,300-hectare man-made lake near the Dekra Lausitzring. The straight course minimized turns and maximized speed. Once completed, the athletes took to the biking portion of the event on open roads leading to the Lausitzring’s 5.85-kilometer Test Oval. There they finished the cycling portion of the race before hitting the track – again, long straights with no dead or slowed turns allowed athletes to maximize speed and endurance.