The 40-year-old three-time champion announced on Thursday that he had recently been diagnosed with a partial tear of the Achilles tendon. “Now it’s time to go on number,” Frodeno emphasized.

A start and a title defense on May 7 is not possible. “If you have a partial tear, there is always the danger that even more happens,” Frodeno said.

Top failure even with the women

This is missing at the race on 7 May over 3.86 kilometers of swimming, 180.2 kilometers cycling and 42.2 kilometers the nearest top athlete. Previously, the two-time world champion Patrick Lange (2017 and 2018) after a wheel fall and a shoulder injury had to cancel his participation as well as the women the three-time vice-world champion Lucy Charles-Barclay.

The Britin pauses because of a stress fracture in the hip. After the World Cup in October last year as well as the year before the Corona Pandemic had to be canceled, the 2021 edition was awarded to St. George in the US state of Utah. In October of this year, the show-down on Hawaii.

It’s part of the sport, but that does not make it easier.

Jan Frodeno

In 2018, Frodeno had to fit on Big Island because of a hip injury. In 2019 he had won his third title after 2015 and 2016.

That’s the second time that he misses a big race where he would like to start. “It’s part of the sport, but that does not make it easier,” Frodeno commented on the passenger seat in a car: “My dream is still to come to Big Island on Hawaii and have a really big race there.”

For more than an hour, he could not run at the moment. “But that’s not enough for a marathon, not even half a half,” said the 2008 Olympic champion, who was finally preparing for the coming season in a winter training camp. He had been really fit, he stressed, “I hope I return soon.”