By the time Kona rolled around in October, Leon was quite tired from the long triathlon season and the academic year. He’d graduated from his Master’s in Chemical Engineering over the summer and had been able to solely focus on being the fastest athlete he could.

On his first visit to Kona and in the fastest race the island has seen, Leon finished 7th. Despite having to serve a 1 minute penalty on the bike (due to the loss of a bottle on the course), Leon posted the 3rd fastest bike split of the day and of all time.

The performance cemented Leon’s place in the top 10 Ironman athletes of the moment and secured him 13th in the 2022 PTO World Rankings.