IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship Heads to Happy Valley

Happy Valley, Pennsylvania is hosting the IRONMAN 70.3 North America Championship for the first time on Sunday, June 14. The event, which has been part of the IRONMAN 70.3 series since 2023 and held its first pro race last year, is also the seventh stop in the IRONMAN Pro Series and will be broadcast live on the IRONMAN YouTube page and other partners. There are 2,500 series points on the line, along with a US$75,000 prize purse.

As has become the norm with IRONMAN Pro Series races in North America, a huge pro field will be on hand to join the roughly 1,700 age-group athletes competing in Sunday’s race.

Highlighting the age group competitors will be 80-year-old Natalie Grabow from Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. Grabow became the oldest woman to finish the IRONMAN World Championship last year, crossing the line in Kona in 16:45:26.

Women’s Race

While American Lydia Russell returns as the defending champion, she’ll face a considerably deeper field this year – despite sharing the podium last year with 2022 IRONMAN world champ Chelsea Sodaro and Jeanni Metzler.

Canadian Paula Findlay will certainly be one of the main pre-race favourites – the 2012 Olympian and multiple 70.3 champion returned to racing after a long stretch of injury issues to take second at IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga last month. The woman who beat Findlay in Chattanooga and also took IRONMAN 70.3 Gulf Coast, American Grace Alexander, will be looking for another top finish, while Kiwi Hannah Berry continues her quest for a top finish in the Pro Series with after a runner-up finish in New Zealand and a seventh-place finish at IRONMAN Texas. Others in the field who are very viable threats for the win and/ or the podium include Australia’s Grace Thek, Canadian Tamara Jewett, along with Americans Jackie Hering and Danielle Lewis.

Here’s the full women’s pro start list:

Men’s Race:

American Matt Hanson will wear race #1 on the weekend, a nod to his second-place position in the IRONMAN Pro Series. After a self-admitted “tough” day at IRONMAN Texas (he finished 15th), Sam Long bounced back with a win at 70.3 Gulf Coast, then took fourth at 70.3 Chattanooga. He’ll no-doubt be looking to add another win to his 2026 resume, but will have to deal with the usual issues of chasing after the swim. The field includes a number of quick swimmers, including countrymen Ben Kanute and Matthew Marquardt, who took IRONMAN South Africa in record-setting style earlier this year, Marc Dubrick and Morgan Pearson, who will be competing in his second race of 2026 after finishing fourth at T100 San Francisco last weekend. Jason West (USA) was just a few seconds behind Pearson in San Francisco last weekend, so he’ll be another running speedster to watch. IRONMAN New Zealand champ Trevor Foley looks to continue his winning streak in his second race of 2026, too.

The huge men’s field will no-doubt have some other names who will be pushing at the front. Here’s the full men’s pro start list:

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