IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Marbella: Who’s In and Who Isn’t?

Kat Matthews, Taylor Knibb and Ashleigh Gentle on the 2024 70.3 World Championship podium. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

The start lists for the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain, are out, and as expected, the fields in the two pro races are stacked with talent. The races are set for Nov. 8 and 9, and there are six former 70.3 world champions returning to vie for another title, including 2024 winners Taylor Knibb (who will be shooting for her fourth consecutive 70.3 world crown) and Jelle Geens.

There are plenty of big names who are in for Marbella, but also a surprising number of notable athletes who are out. We’ve got the full lists for you and a look at the usual threats who are passing (or missing out) on this year’s world champs.

The Women in the Race

As already mentioned, Knibb will be in Spain looking to win the 70.3 world title for the fourth year in a row. She is coming off of a brutal race in Kona in which she had the lead until the final two miles, when she physically couldn’t move another step and fell to the side of the road. Knibb will be joined by the 2024 second-place finisher from the 70.3 worlds, Kat Matthews. Matthews is also fresh off a hard race in Kona, where she finished second (she has a total of five runner-up finishes at the IRONMAN and 70.3 world championships).

In total, 21 of the 72 women set to race the 70.3 worlds competed in Kona, including Lucy Charles-Barclay, Laura Philipp, newly crowned IRONMAN world champ Solveig Løvseth and more. The race in Kona took place on Oct. 11, giving the women who raced there just under a month to recover for Marbella.

Solveig Løvseth wins the IRONMAN World Championship. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Among those who didn’t race in Kona and might be travelling to Spain on fresher legs are Paula Findlay, Ellie Salthouse and Georgia Taylor-Brown. Findlay finished sixth at last year’s world champs, fifth the year before and second in 2022. She has had a great season so far that has seen her run to four 70.3 wins, so she is a definite threat for the podium in Marbella.

Salthouse only has one win to her name in 2025, but after a seventh-place finish at the world championship last year and multiple 70.3 wins in her career, she cannot be overlooked leading into this year’s 70.3 finale.

Unlike Findlay and Salthouse, Taylor-Brown hasn’t won too many 70.3s in her career, but that’s only because she has spent much of her years in the sport focused on short-course racing. She won 70.3 Bahrain last year (which qualified her for this world championship), and with multiple Olympic medals to her name and a World Triathlon title on her resume, she undoubtedly has the speed required to keep up with the other top women. If she gets to the run in good standing, she could take it to her competitors and really do some damage.

Who’s Out for the Women?

So many women who raced in Kona will be in Spain, but there are a few notable athletes who are passing on a second world championship event in less than a month. Hannah Berry was on the list of qualified athletes for Marbella, but after a fourth-place finish in Kona, she is taking some time to recover and refocus for the T100 world championship race in Qatar in December.

Jocelyn McCauley is another top-10 finisher from Kona who qualified for Spain but won’t be racing. McCauley was seventh on the Big Island, and although she would certainly like another crack at racing with the world’s best, she clearly decided it was not in her best interest to race so soon after Kona.

Hannah Berry will skip the 70.3 world championship after a stellar showing in Kona. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

After a couple of second-place finishes at 70.3 Eagleman and 70.3 Pennsylvania earlier this year, Chelsea Sodaro looked to be in good form coming into the world championship season. After a heartbreaking day in Kona that saw her pull out on the bike, she will be skipping Marbella and moving toward 2026.

Finally, a woman who qualified for the worlds but won’t be going and didn’t race in Kona is Jeanne Lehair. Lehair is coming off of a great season in which she finished second at 70.3 Valencia, won WTCS Yokohama, finished second at WTCS French Riviera and won the Supertri League title. She is absent from the start list for Marbella, but she is an athlete to watch in the future as she works into more middle-distance racing.

The Men in the Race

The top four men in the field in Marbella — Geens, Rico Bogen, Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden — are the owners of the last five 70.3 world titles. Toss in Casper Stornes (ninth on the start list) and there are five IRONMAN or 70.3 world champions in the men’s lineup.

Like in the women’s race, there are a lot of men racing in Marbella who competed at the IRONMAN World Championship this year, with 20 total set to do the IRONMAN-70.3 double. Of course, the men have had an extra month to recover since their race in Nice, while the women have a much tighter turnaround since Kona.

Casper Stornes will be one of the four IRONMAN world champs in the pro fields in Marbella. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

The women’s race could certainly swing in favor of one of the athletes who competed in Kona, but it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if a woman with less wear and tear on her body pulls out a win. In the men’s race, though, it’s really anybody’s game. Yes, Geens and Bogen haven’t raced IRONMAN events this year, but Blummenfelt, Iden, Stornes and the other men in the field who lined up in Nice are not only used to recovering after a full-distance event, but they’ve had a good chunk of time to do so.

Other names to watch out for in Marbella are Vincent Luis, Sam Long and Jamie Riddle. Luis hasn’t raced a 70.3 yet this year, but he qualified for Marbella with a blazing 3:32:16 finish at 70.3 Bahrain last year. He has had a sub-par season of T100 racing (he hasn’t made the top 10 in the three races he’s entered), but a fourth-place finish at Challenge Roth showed that he is still a threat at the world’s biggest races.

Long last raced the 70.3 worlds in 2023, when he finished 12th. The big question with Long is how much damage control he can do in the swim. He has what it takes to win (he has a pair of 70.3 victories this season), but if he gets out of the water too far behind the leaders, he’ll have a hard time catching up to the front pack before running out of real estate.

Riddle has been fun to watch this season. After competing at the Olympics last year, he closed out the season with a second at 70.3 Western Australia before moving into 2025 with his sights solely on middle-distance and long-course racing. He had a fifth-place finish at IRONMAN South Africa, followed by fourth at IRONMAN Cairns. He also finished fifth at T100 San Francisco and 10th at his debut IRONMAN World Championship in Nice. Marbella will mark his first time racing 70.3 worlds, and although it will be a new experience for him, he is certainly an athlete who could surprise people on race day.

Jelle Geens wins the 2024 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Who’s Out?

Neither Hayden Wilde nor Leo Bergere — two of the top three from last year’s world championship — are racing in Marbella. Wilde has had an incredible season, winning all five T100 races he has entered (and WTCS Abu Dhabi) despite being involved in a horrible accident that left him with multiple broken bones and in need of surgery. The accident forced him to sit out for several months. When he returned to racing he focused on T100 events instead of 70.3s, so he never qualified for worlds.

Bergere was third in 2024, but he, too, focused his attention on other races, competing in WTCS and T100 events all year and not attempting to qualify for the 70.3 worlds. Fourth place in 2024 was Kyle Smith, who has also been dialled in on T100 racing and skipped 70.3s for the year.

Despite some top men sitting out or missing out on this race, the field is still packed with speed and talent, and it is sure to be an exciting day of racing no matter what.

Tags: