They Said It: What the Top 5 Women in Marbella Thought About the 70.3 World Championship

The top five women of Marbella. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

The pro women put on an incredible show at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain, on Saturday, with Lucy Charles-Barclay taking the win less than a month after her dramatic race in Kona. She didn’t finish the race in Hawaii, but she was first across the line on Saturday, proving to anyone who doubted her that she is still at the top of her game. Charles-Barclay and the other top five women in Marbella sat down for a seaside press conference after the race to discuss their thoughts on the day, how they felt and more.

Marjolaine Pierré’s Continued Success

Last year at the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, France’s Marjolaine Pierré burst onto the scene with an amazing fourth-place finish. She carried that strong form into 2025, winning 70.3 Pays d’Aix and the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships. She had a tough day in Kona last month, finishing 32nd, but she bounced back with a fifth-place result on Saturday in Marbella.

When asked what she thought about the race, she said she was pleased with her placing, but she is already shifting focus.

“To be honest, my eyes are on the world championship next year,” she said. Pierré lives and trains in Nice, where the 2026 70.3 worlds will be held, so she is keen to race at home.

“I hope to be on the podium next year,” she said.

Tanja Neubert (left) and Marjolaine Pierré. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

Pierré has been training under coach Reece Barclay (Charles-Barclay’s husband and coach), and she credited her strong results to that. She has spent a lot of time training with Barclay and Charles-Barclay, and she said it has been a wonderful way to improve, not just physically, but mentally, too.

“They have so much experinece for the highs and lows, so, yeah, it gave me so much strength […] and happiness,” Pierré said. “They inspire everyone.”

Georgia Taylor-Brown’s “Year Off”

Great Britain’s George Taylor-Brown is in the middle of a pressure-free “year off” from racing (which has actually included a whole lot of racing). She refers to her regular life of short-course triathlon as her “work,” so events like gravel cycling races and the 70.3 World Championship are just fun sabbatical activities she gets to try out.

For someone who came into the season looking at it through that lens, Taylor-Brown did an amazing job on Saturday. She finished fourth after posting the second-fastest run split of the day — a 1:71:31 that only Lucy Charles-Barclay bested. She said she went into the race with no expectations, so she was quite relaxed in the hours before jumping into the Mediterranean.

Georgia Taylor-Brown leads a chase group out of the water in Marbella. Photo: Eric Wynn

“I went in as Number 11, so, I don’t know, sometimes you play a little game and you, like, try and beat your number,” she said. She beat her number on the start list handily, climbing seven spots from her initial ranking. However, as she explained, it didn’t come easily to her.

“I didn’t feel great,” she said. “I just had to settle in today and just accept that, and then I got on the run and I felt surprisingly OK.”

Taylor-Brown climbed from ninth to fourth over the course of the run, and although she was just one spot off the podium, she said she knew she couldn’t erase the deficit between herself and third before the end of the race.

“I just wanted to try and focus on staying in fourth, because Marjolaine was coming for me,” she said. “I think that’s why I maybe ran a fast time in the end, because she was hunting me down, so she made me push right to the end, which is fun like, that’s what we’re here to do.”

Taylor-Brown has three races to go before the end of her year off, then she will be transitioning back to a focus on short-course in her attempt to get back to the Olympics.

Tanja Neubert’s Strong Debut

Speaking of short-course racing, that’s where Tanja Neubert has been for most of her career. Before Saturday, she only had one 70.3 under her belt — last year’s race in Bahrain, where she placed second behind none other than Taylor-Brown.

Going into 70.3 worlds this year, multiple athletes singled out Neubert as a threat to have a big performance on Saturday, and she delivered. She got off the bike in seventh and climbed to the podium thanks to a 1:18:16 half-marathon split.

“It was amazing,” Neubert said. “All the people here, the crowds, I’m not used to it […] so it’s amazing to have so many people cheering.”

Tanja Neubert had a tremendous day at her 70.3 worlds debut. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

On the bike, Neubert said she simply “tried to survive.” She said that she didn’t see a podium finish in her future when she was out on the bike, so it was a nice surprise to run her way to third.

“I just had in my mind that the race ends at the finish line, so you just have to continue pushing until the end,” she said.

Taylor Knibb’s Redemption Race

Taylor Knibb wasn’t sure she would race in Marbella until late last week. Considering how her day in Kona ended last month, it was completely fair for her to be a little uncertain. She spent those weeks recovering and undergoing medical tests to make sure that racing again so soon was the right decision. She finished in second place, so it’s safe to say that she recovered pretty well in the past few weeks.

Most people would be thrilled with second, but Knibb was the three-time defending champion at this race, so she was understandably not over the moon with the result.

“It’s not quite the redemption that Lucy had,” Knibb said. “She raises the bar for all of us.”

Knibb continued, saying that, regardless of the result, she was grateful to have been in Marbella and to have raced.

Georgia Taylor-Brown, Taylor Knibb and Lucy Charles-Barclay. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon

“Just to race, I can go into off season now with a little less fear, a little less doubt and uncertainty,” she said.

There will be lots of time for Knibb and her team to evaluate the race and focus on what she can improve upon for next season, but she said she was already analyzing her performance while on the course on Saturday.

“During the race, I have a lot of thoughts for how I’d like to improve next year,” she said. “I think [that] is always a great way to end a season, because then it’s just going to all percolate.”

Knibb having ideas of how she can get faster this far ahead of the 2026 season is great for her, but it is certainly not good news for her competitors, as she gives them enough of a hard time at races as it is.

Lucy Charles-Barclay’s Post-Kona Turnaround

Charles-Barclay had a heartbreaking end to her race in Kona last month, but she is now a world champion again only a few weeks later. She said she “didn’t have many expectations” heading into Marbella, but rather that she came to the race hoping to “enjoy the course” and see how her body felt.

“When I came here and rode the course initially on a training ride, I was like, whatever happens here, this is such an amazing course and I’m so glad I’m not missing out on it,” Charles-Barclay said.

Charles-Barclay breaks the tap in Spain. Photo: Eric Wynn

When asked about her mindset after Kona, Charles-Barclay said she was upset with the result, but her focus quickly shifted when a close family member passed away.

“We lost someone really special to us,” she said. “I think that kind of just changed my perspective quite a lot. It was like, OK, Kona’s behind me, but I’m still healthy, I’m happy, I’m here. And yeah, I guess life is short and you have to try and enjoy it.”

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