Indian Army Athlete Biten Singh Won Ironman 70.3 Goa on 1 November 2026 in a Course-Record 4:24:29, 1 Minute 18 Seconds Inside the 2025 Mark

Biten Singh of the Indian Army won the sixth Ironman 70.3 Goa on Sunday, 1 November 2026, in 4 hours 24 minutes 29 seconds, a course record. He finished 1 minute 18 seconds inside the 4:25:47 that Konstantin Belousov of Uzbekistan set in 2025, and 22 minutes ahead of the runner-up, Anirudh Ravichandran of India. Reports say he fitted three months of training around a posting in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.

News On AIR, the public broadcaster’s service, described him as Indian Army personnel. The 2026 reports do not give his rank. The Army’s own social media post after the 2023 race, as quoted by Northeast Live, called him Hav L Biten Singh. Timezeo lists him as Laikhuram Singh and Endurance Data as L Biten Singh.

The race and the record

A 70.3 race is a half-distance Ironman. Ironman’s Goa FAQ lists the distances as a 1.9 km swim, a 90 km bike ride and a 21.097 km run, against 3.8 km, 180 km and 42.195 km for a full Ironman. News On AIR rounds them to 2 km, 90 km and 21 km. Ironman’s course page describes the swim as one triangular lap in the waters off Miramar beach in Panaji.

The record is the organisers’ claim. PTI, the news agency, reported that the organisers said Singh bettered the previous course record, and Herald Goa and Telangana Today give the same two times and the same 1 minute 18 second margin. News On AIR gives the times. The race was organised by Yoska with the Government of Goa and Ironman. Organisers said more than 2,000 triathletes from 30 countries took part.

The timing database SportSplits lists Singh at 4:24:28, one second less than the reports. It also lists Belousov’s 2025 time as 4:25:46, so the gap is the same 1 minute 18 seconds on either set of figures.

Where the minutes came from

SportSplits publishes leg times for both races, and a comparison shows how the record was built. Singh swam in 28:30, spent 4:00 in the first transition, rode in 2:21:47, spent 2:06 in the second transition and ran in 1:28:03. For Belousov in 2025 the same site lists a 29:35 swim, 4:59 and 2:05 in transition, a 2:23:27 ride and a 1:25:39 run. A second database, AI TRI+, lists Belousov’s 2025 run as 1:25:39 as well, with a 29:36 swim and a 2:23:28 ride.

By tuput’s arithmetic from those figures, Singh was 3 minutes 44 seconds ahead of Belousov after the swim, the first transition and the bike, and then ran 2 minutes 24 seconds slower. Net of a one-second difference in the second transition, that is the 1 minute 18 second margin, give or take a second of rounding.

Against the runner-up the picture is simpler. SportSplits has Ravichandran at 4:46:31 with a 36:08 swim, a 2:28:05 ride and a 1:35:44 run, so Singh was faster on all three legs, by 7 minutes 38 seconds, 6 minutes 18 seconds and 7 minutes 41 seconds. Nihal Baig, a former winner of the race, was third in 4:52:59 according to Herald Goa and Timezeo.

Three months of training around a posting in Tawang

Herald Goa, Telangana Today and PTI report that Singh is posted in Tawang and prepared for three months while balancing the training with the demands of the posting. The reports do not say where he trained. The Tawang district administration gives the district’s elevation as ranging from 3,500 feet to 22,500 feet, and our guide to Tawang and the road over Sela covers the town and its monastery.

Singh also had a score to settle with the course. The 2026 reports say he withdrew from the 2024 edition with dehydration. ANI’s report of the 2024 race says the eventual winner, Bishworjit Saikhom, duelled with Laikhuram Singh for the lead through the swim and the bike. The reports do not say at what point Singh stopped. In 2023, the third edition, he had finished second in 4:39:24 according to Northeast Live, with Timezeo giving the same place and time and Endurance Data listing 4:39:23.

In the Herald Goa and Telangana Today versions Singh said he had set himself the target of breaking the record that day. The outlets give slightly different wording, so tuput paraphrases it.

The Army at Goa since the first edition

Singh is one of several Army athletes who have stood on the Goa podium. ANI reports that Saikhom, from the Army, won the inaugural race in 2019 and won again in 2024 in a personal best of 4:32:04. At the 2023 race the Army’s post, as quoted by Northeast Live, congratulated Singh and Saikhom on second and third in the men’s race and said Army teams took second and third in the men’s relay. Our profile of Manipur covers the state both men come from.

The rest of the 2026 results

In the women’s race Marina Shliakhtina won in 5:30:29, ahead of Sabina Iskakova in 5:42:58 and Mellanie Vendt in 6:04:54. In the men’s relay, where three athletes split the swim, ride and run, Team Fit Swaggers Goa won in 4:33:24, followed by Team Serious About Training in 4:35:22 and Team Airforce 2 in 4:47:04, according to Herald Goa and Telangana Today. An Air Force relay member quoted by Herald Goa said the team was drawn from people posted at different places.

At the press conference on 30 October, ANI reports, the organisers said 150 local Goans supported by the Department of Tourism would stand on the start line, with a choir opening the swim start to mark 150 years of Vande Mataram. Race director Deepak Raj said the event had grown from about 1,000 people in its first year to more than 2,000. Goa’s tourism minister spoke of sports tourism at the same event. Our Goa at a glance covers the state itself.

What Singh says comes next

After the race Singh said his next goal is to compete at the Ironman World Championship and that he would need more training for the full distance, which Ironman’s FAQ lists as 3.8 km, 180 km and 42.195 km. The 70.3 race he won is the half distance. Ironman’s Goa page separately says the race awards places at the 2028 Ironman 70.3 World Championship, one to each age-group winner and the rest by an age-graded ranking of finish times. The reports do not say how many places Goa carried in 2026 or who took them.

Notes on the numbers

Three points on comparability. The record is the organisers’ and is compared across editions on a course whose layout can change: Ironman’s course page, read on 5 November 2026, describes a two-lap bike course with a newly opened section over the Zuari Bridge, and does not say which year that section arrived. The one-second gaps between databases come from different timing conventions. And the field of more than 2,000 triathletes is the organisers’ figure, which the reports do not break down into individual and relay entrants.

Results are as published by the organisers, the press and the timing databases on 5 November 2026 and could be revised by Ironman’s official results page.