Lucy Charles-Barclay Wins IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Weeks After Kona Heartbreak

Lucy Charles-Barclay won the second 70.3 world title of her career in Marbella on Saturday. Photo: Eric Wynn

The women kicked off the 2025 IRONMAN World Championship weekend on Saturday, with more than 2,600 athletes competing in Marbella, Spain. After a little over four hours of racing, Great Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay took the win in the pro race, breaking the tape in a final time of 4:14:54 and earning the second 70.3 world title of her career. American Taylor Knibb finished three minutes back in second, and third went to Germany’s Tanja Neubert.

Charles-Barclay Leads Out of the Water

Some people thought Charles-Barclay could have competition in the swim on Saturday, but she was in a league of her own right from the gun. The swim course was just 1.2 miles long, but the 2021 70.3 world champ built a 47-second gap between the beach start and T1. Her time as she exited the water was 25:05.

Charles-Barclay had the fastest swim of the day with a 25:05 split. Photo: Eric Wynn

Knibb climbed out of the water in second place, followed closely by Jess Learmonth. The next-closest athlete was Brazil’s Djenyfer Arnold, who is fresh off a win at 70.3 Florianopolis just a couple of weeks ago. Arnold was close to two minutes back of the lead, and 10 seconds behind her was a long string of athletes who hit the bike course together.

That large chase group behind the lead four women included three-time Olympic medallist Georgia Taylor-Brown, two-time 70.3 world champs runner-up Kat Matthews and recently crowned IRONMAN world champion Solveig Løvseth.

A Battle on the Bike

Just like in Kona last month, it was a two-woman race between Charles-Barclay and Knibb on the bike course. Knibb started the ride 45 seconds behind Charles-Barclay, but she closed that gap in what felt like no time at all. After six miles of cycling, she had overtaken Charles-Barclay for the lead, and she didn’t wait around to give the Brit a chance to slot in behind her.

Just a mile after the pass, Knibb had opened up a lead of 17 seconds of Charles-Barclay. Over the next eight miles or so, Charles-Barclay managed to ride at relatively the same pace as Knibb. The lead grew to as much as 23 seconds at one point, but Charles-Barclay was able to keep within striking distance throughout this entire stretch.

After the first third of the ride, Charles-Barclay drew back even with Knibb and made the pass, but Knibb took over in front only a few minutes later. For the rest of the ride, Charles-Barclay seemed content to let Knibb lead, hovering just a few seconds behind her for much of the way back to T2. Knibb’s lead grew to 19 seconds by the time she got off her bike and set out on the run.

Knibb had the fastest ride of the day, posting a 2:28:36 split over the 56 miles of riding. Charles-Barclay had the second-fastest split among the women, riding 2:29:41.

As the top two women hit transition, Matthews, Learmonth and Denmark’s Sif Madsen made up the first chase pack. They were almost four minutes behind Knibb, and with only 13 miles of running to go, they were going to have to drop some seriously quick half-marathons if they wanted a shot at the world title.

Charles-Barclay Takes Over on the Run

The start of the run in Marbella was very similar to the opening stages of the marathon in Kona last month. Knibb had a slight lead, but the question was whether she had the running legs to hold off a charging Charles-Barclay.

In Kona, Knibb and Charles-Barclay had such a large gap over the rest of the field off the bike that it looked like the race was one of theirs to win unless they collapsed on the run. As we all know now, that is exactly what happened, with Charles-Barclay tapping out around halfway after succumbing to the heat and Knibb literally falling to the road with just a couple of miles left to run.

Knibb ran to second place in Marbella. Photo: Eric Wynn

Kona proved that no lead is safe in triathlon, but with a gap of almost four minutes off the bike, it seemed like, unless something catastrophic went down during the half-marathon, the win was going to go to one of those two women.

Matthews may have been close to four minutes down in T2, but she flew onto the run course, clearly not satisfied with third place. Early on in the run, it was Learmonth and Madsen behind Matthews, followed by Paula Findlay in sixth, more than five minutes behind the leaders.

For the first three miles of the run, Charles-Barclay didn’t make too much progress in her chase-down of Knibb, but around one third of the way through the half-marathon, she caught the three-time reigning 70.3 world champion. Knibb didn’t let Charles-Barclay get away easily, however, staying with the Brit for about a half mile. She couldn’t hang on too much longer, though, and Charles-Barclay surged ahead to the front of the race on her own.

In those first three miles, Matthews ran with the same intensity she had in Kona as she tried to catch Løvseth in the final stages of the marathon. On that day, she ran to a Kona run course record, but on Saturday in Marbella, it led to disaster. She was running extremely well and making up so much time (after three miles she was only 2:45 back of the lead), but she stopped very suddenly.

70.3 worlds rookie Tanja Neubert had a stellar run to place third in Marbella. Photo: Eric Wynn

Matthews tried to get back to running, and she did jog for a bit, but she ended up pulling out of the race just down the road due to a calf injury. (Matthews was reportedly dealing with a calf strain in the weeks after Kona.) This opened the door for someone else to climb onto the podium. At that point, Learmonth was in third, but Neubert was flying, and she soon made the pass for third.

Findlay was another one of the pre-race favorites, but she had to join Matthews on the DNF list. She had a great season, winning four of four 70.3s she entered, but she arrived in Marbella nursing a hip injury.

Another Win for Charles-Barclay

It’s impressive enough to deliver a strong performance just weeks after racing any IRONMAN, but Charles-Barclay’s day in Marbella was remarkable. She was beaten down and crushed by the elements in Kona last month, and she said earlier this week that she wasn’t even sure if she would show up to race in Marbella until quite recently.

She did more than show up, though — she dominated. She pieced together a masterclass of a race right from the get go, dropping the fastest swim split of the day, riding second-fastest behind Knibb and wrapping things up with a come-from-behind 1:17:14 half-marathon to take the win.

Charles-Barclay ran to the line with her arms over her head. She grabbed the tape emphatically, literally jumping for joy as she was met by her husband.

Knibb held on for second, posting a run split of 1:20:21 to finish in 4:17:55. Neubert — a 70.3 worlds rookie — rounded out the podium in 4:22:07.

Kat Matthews may not have finished the race, but she did enough throughout the season to secure the IRONMAN Pro Series win for the second year in a row.

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