Blummenfelt and Iden will not finish the season in Kona: they will race together in China.
Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden will compete in the Xiamen Challenge on November 7, exactly four weeks after the 2026 Kona IRONMAN World Championship .
Challenge Family confirmed on September 16 the presence of the two Norwegians in the Chinese event, where they will lead a professional field of 40 triathletes whose full list will be announced in the coming weeks.
The announcement expands a schedule that had Kona as one of its main objectives. The 2026 IRONMAN World Championship in Kona will take place on October 10 and will feature both Blummenfelt and Iden. Just 28 days later , they will compete together again, this time in a half-distance race in China.
Kona will not be the last race of the year
The confirmation comes just days after the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice, where both were once again among the protagonists.
Blummenfelt finished second, just 18 seconds behind Hayden Wilde, after completing the half marathon in 1:05:12, the fastest run split of the men's race. At Triathlon News, we analyze his comeback and that half marathon at around 3:05 min/km.
Iden finished fourth in Nice after posting the best cycling split of the World Championship with 2:16:43 , seven seconds faster than Wilde's time.
Both are now focusing their preparation on Kona, but the addition of Xiamen confirms that their competitive season will continue after Hawaii.
Challenge Xiamen will distribute 25.000 euros in prizes
The Xiamen Challenge 2026 will be contested over a 1,9-kilometer swim, a 90-kilometer bike ride and a 21,1-kilometer run on the coast of Xiamen, in southeastern China.
The professional race will have a prize purse of €25.000 . The event will take place over the weekend of November 7th and 8th, and the organizers expect to bring together more than 2.500 athletes across the various scheduled events.
In addition to the middle distance, the program includes Olympic and sprint distance triathlons, duathlon and competitions for junior categories.
Xiamen already produced a Spanish victory in 2025
Triathlon News closely followed the Chinese event last season. Sara Pérez Sala won the 2025 Xiamen Challenge with a time of 3:53:31 after dominating the women's race.
The 2026 edition will now raise the bar for its lineup with the confirmed presence of Blummenfelt and Iden. Challenge Family will soon announce the remaining names that will complete the 40 professionals scheduled for November 7th.
This content has been created with the support of AI tools and reviewed by the Triathlon News editorial team.
