Great Britain’s Tim Don posted a 7:40:23 at today’s Ironman South American Championship in Florianopolis, Brazil to become the fastest athlete to ever finish an Ironman-branded race. The former ITU star put together a 44:16 swim, a 4:06:56 bike and a 2:44:46 marathon to post the incredible 7:40:23 finishing time and break Canadian Lionel Sanders’ record of 7:44:29, which was just set at last November’s Ironman Arizona. In addition to the record, Don earned the championship victory with an astounding 25-minute margin over second-place finisher Kyle Buckingham of South Africa and will be guaranteed a slot for October’s Ironman World Championship.

Don’s performance is part of an overall trend of faster iron-distance finishing times. The record prior to Sanders’ Arizona win stood at 7:45:58 (Marino Vanhoenacker in 2011) for over five years. Germany’s Jan Frodeno also recently broke the overall record for fastest iron-distance race. He posted a 7:35:39 at July’s Challenge Roth (a non-Ironman event) to break the previous record of 7:41:33 of countryman Andreas Raelert, which was also set in Roth.

Check back for a photo gallery from Florianopolis.

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