Qualifying is Closing. Who Hasn’t Made It to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella?
Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
The 2025 Ironman 70.3 World Championship is set for November 8 and 9 in Marbella, Spain, and while that is still several months away, the qualification window for the race closes as of June 29. That leaves only a few events at which age groupers can qualify, and there are only three more pro races left in that window. Most of the athletes you would expect to be in the lineup for Marbella have already qualified, but there are a few familiar names still missing from the list. Some of those might have already decided to take a pass on the worlds in Marbella, which come just four weeks after the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, a week before the penultimate T100 race in Dubai (Nov. 15 and 16) and five weeks out from the T100 final in Qatar (Dec. 12 and 13). Here’s who is in, who’s out, and who is putting everything into the last races of the qualifying window in the coming two weeks.
Who’s in?
IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship 2024 – make that three in a row for Taylor Knibb. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
Most of the heavy-hitters everyone is used to seeing at the biggest races of the year will be in Marbella in November. American Taylor Knibb locked in her spot with a win at the 2024 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand. That win made it three 70.3 world crowns in a row for her, and although she has said that her focus for 2025 is Kona (which will take place just under a month before the 70.3 worlds), assuming she lines up, she has to be the favourite going into Marbella. Knibb is also contracted with the T100 series, though, so depending on how she bounces back from Kona and where things are at with the T100 series, it’s not inconceivable that she doesn’t end up lining up for a four-peat in Spain.
Great Britain’s Kat Matthews, the runner-up behind Knibb in both 2023 and 2024, booked her ticket to the 2025 worlds before the 2024 finale, as she finished second at 70.3 Tallinn last August. Like Knibb, she will likely be racing in Kona a month before Marbella, but she will be expecting a big result in Spain as she looks to climb one step higher on the podium and claim the first world title of her career.
Canadian Paula Findlay is another past world championship runner-up (she finished second to Knibb in 2022) who has secured a spot on the start line in Marbella. She finished sixth in 2024, 10 minutes behind Knibb’s 3:57:34 performance, but she has had a hot start to 2025, winning 70.3 Oceanside in April and 70.3 St. George a month later.
On the men’s side, the past four 70.3 world champions are all set to race in Spain. Belgium’s Jelle Geens, the 2024 world champion, will look to make it back-to-back wins, but he will have his work cut out for him with Germany’s Rico Bogen (2023 world champ) and a pair of Norwegians in Kristian Blummenfelt (2022 winner) and Gustav Iden (world champion in 2019 and 2021) all qualified.
Who’s out?
There are four women missing from the list of qualified athletes for Marbella. Australian star Ashleigh Gentle finished third at the 2024 worlds, but she hasn’t raced another 70.3 in the qualification period. Gentle is always a threat for a strong result, so her missing the world championship not only gives the other favourites a bit of a boost, but it opens the door for other athletes to climb the standings. As a contracted T100 athlete, Gentle could be focussed on that series and electing to take a pass on Marbella.
Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds is also absent from the list for the worlds. Simmonds finished fourth in Taupo last year, but she has since been provisionally suspended following a positive drug test. Because of this suspension, she has not had the opportunity to race a 70.3 in the qualifying period, so she will be missing the world championship regardless of how her doping case turns out.
Julie Derron, another Swiss athlete, is missing from the list of qualified athletes. Derron finished fifth at the 2024 worlds, and she currently sits in third in the PTO rankings. With a win at T100 San Francisco and a second-place finish at T100 Vancouver, she has had a great season so far, but it looks like she will be missing (or skipping to focus on T100) the 70.3 worlds in November.
Canadian Tamara Jewett has also failed to qualify for 70.3 worlds up to this point. Jewett is the third-ranked runner on the PTO circuit and 14th overall. She finished ninth at the 2024 worlds in Taupo, and she is always a threat to run down even the fastest of athletes ahead of her. Other than these few women, the rest of the top 20 from last year’s 70.3 World Championship have all qualified for Marbella.
Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
The qualified men’s field has far more missing from last year’s top 20 finishers. The three men who finished behind Geens in Taupo — Hayden Wilde, Leo Bergere, and Kyle Smith — are all missing form the list of qualified athletes. Wilde is recovering from a brutal injury, so it was unlikely he would be ready to compete on the world stage so soon. Bergere has been competing at both World Triathlon Championship Series and T100 races this year, so he might be electing to pass on 70.3 racing in 2025, while Smith has a T100 contract, and is likely focussed on those races.
Taupo sixth-place finisher Henri Schoeman of South Africa has also missed out on qualifying, as well as four other men from the top 20. With so many top men missing from the race, it could mean there is an opportunity for other athletes to fill the gaps, but with so many past champions in the field, it shouldn’t be too surprising if a familiar face breaks the tape in Marbella.
Who’s taking one last shot?
The three races left at which professionals can qualify are 70.3 Westfriesland in the Netherlands, 70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendée in France (both of which on June 22), and 70.3 Nice on June 29, the final day of the qualifying window.
There are 22 pro women and 56 pro men racing 70.3 Westfriesland, with qualifying slots for the top two men and women. Some of these athletes have already qualified for Marbella, but some haven’t, including Britain’s Thomas Bishop and Australian Cam Wurf. Bishop is among the names on the list of men from the top 20 at the 2024 World Championship who have not qualified for the 2025 finale.
Bishop finished 12th in Taupo, but he has not raced another 70.3 during the qualification period. He can definitely lay down a stellar result, though, as he showed at Challenge Roth last July, when he finished second in 7:37:54. He will be looking to take the win on Sunday so he can compete for a world title once more this November.
Wurf has raced three 70.3s this year, but he has fallen short of qualifying at each one. He finished 20th at 70.3 Geelong in March, 13th in St. George in May, and 10th at a very competitive 70.3 Eagleman last week.
It’s women-only for the pro race in Les Sables, and the top three athletes in the small field of just 15 racers will book their tickets to Marbella. The start lists for Nice have yet to be released, but seeing as it’s the final day to qualify and the top two men and women will earn their spot on the worlds start line, it should make for a pretty exciting race.
