Kiwi professional triathletes Hannah Berry, Rebecca Clarke, and Hannah Knighton are preparing to take on the world’s best female triathletes on home soil this weekend at the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo.
Over 2,400 professional and age-group women will take centre stage on Saturday 14 December, while around 3,800 men will go head-to-head on Sunday as New Zealand hosts the prestigious event for the first time. Professional athletes will battle it out for a piece of the $500,000 USD professional prize purse and the crown of IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, with the winner taking home $75,000 USD.
The VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship will also be the culmination of the inaugural IRONMAN Pro Series™ and the last chance for professional athletes to score points towards their final standings, with a maximum of 3,000 points on offer to the winners in Taupo. At the conclusion of both professional races in Taupo, the first-ever IRONMAN Pro Series Champions will be crowned, with the female and male winners earning a historic bonus payout of $200,000 USD each. A total bonus prize pool of $1.7million USD will be shared among those finishing in the IRONMAN Pro Series top 50 in each gender.
Tauranga triathlete Hannah Berry has had a strong year of racing, winning the Cairns Airport IRONMAN Asia-Pacific Championship Cairns in June and finishing 10th at the VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in September.
Berry, a two-time winner of IRONMAN 70.3 Taupo, says she couldn’t be more excited to race a World Championship on home soil.
“It truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The 70.3 worlds have never been held here in New Zealand, and as an athlete from New Zealand I am used to having to travel a long way for the big championship’s races, so to have one here at home, and have all the top athletes coming out to New Zealand is really special,” said Berry.
The professional women’s race will feature some the best middle distance athletes in the world, including two-time and reigning IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Taylor Knibb (USA), 2024 Olympic silver medallist Julie Derron (CHE), 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship runner-up Kat Matthews (GBR), four-time IRONMAN 70.3 champion Ashleigh Gentle (AUS), and three-time IRONMAN 70.3 champion Caroline Pohle (DEU). With so much firepower, Berry is expecting a fast and close race.
“The women’s race is looking really competitive, with almost all of the top contenders making it out here to race, which is so great. For the win, I think you can’t go past the defending champ Taylor Knibb as the favourite, with the likes of Julie Derron, Kat Matthews, Ash Gentle and Carol Pohle looking to contend, along with a few others,” she said. “I would like to get as close to the top 10 as possible. If I have a great day, maybe I can be inside the top 10.”
With final IRONMAN Pro Series points and positions also on the line in Taupo, Berry is hoping to cap off a successful season of racing with enough points to land her fourth in the women’s series – and earn Berry a bonus payout of $70,000 USD.
“I am always just wanting to race to my current potential, aiming to race as strong as possible and leave it all out there for the last race of the year. For the series, I think I need a little under 1,200 points to reach fourth place overall, so that is a big goal for me. If I can just race the best I currently can across all three disciplines, and get those points for the series, then that is a very successful day for me,” she said.
Like Berry, fellow Kiwi professional athlete Rebecca Clarke has raced all over the world this year and is grateful and excited to have a World Championship race on home soil.
“It's an amazing opportunity and a real privilege to get to race 70.3 World Championship in my home country and in the town where my long distance triathlon career started. It's been a while coming since it was first set to take place in 2020, and I've been looking forward to it all year. I raced in 2012 the ITU Worlds as an age grouper and it was such a great experience, with the atmosphere, lots of friends racing plus the top athletes from around the world. It's great for triathlon in New Zealand to host such a big event again with the world's best triathletes. I love racing in Taupo and it's great not to have to travel so far to race a world class field,” said Clarke.
“I'm expecting the race to be fast from the start with such a strong field, it's going to be close and exciting racing. The bike course is part new, part old, and I think having a really strong bike will be important. With the hills, fast descents and our 'rough' chip I think it will help to break up the field. It's deceiving how much the bike in Taupo does take out of the legs so backing up with a strong run will be important too. I will be aiming to push the swim and be at the front, as that will help to be in a good position for the start of the bike, with such a large field it can be a bit chaotic.”
Clarke is currently 19th in the IRONMAN Pro Series and alongside performing well in front of friends and family on home soil, she is hoping to secure enough points from the VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship race to secure a top 20 finish in the women’s standings.
“This race will be my fifth race to count for the Pro Series, so a good score will keep me in the top 20 of the end of the year rankings. It's the last race of the year so it would be great to finish on a high. I've not had a race I've been completely happy with this year so having a strong performance across all three disciplines and crossing that line knowing I did everything I could in the race will be a great feeling. Also to perform well in front of family and friends who will be there supporting, and the home crowd will be special. This will likely be the one opportunity I have in my pro career to race a World Champs at home so I can't wait to embrace the home support and performing well will mean a lot.”
Hannah Knighton will also represent New Zealand on the start line of the 2024 VinFast 70.3 IRONMAN World Championship after qualifying at last year’s IRONMAN 70.3 Taupo in fourth. The 24-year-old will make her IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship debut this Saturday.
The professional women’s race gets underway at 7:00 a.m. NZT on Saturday 14 December, with live coverage beginning at 6:30 a.m. NZT.
Live coverage of the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship will be broadcast for free across multiple platforms for global viewers including proseries.ironman.com, DAZN, YouTube
, Sky Sport Now in New Zealand, Outside TV exclusively for the U.S. and Canada, L’Équipe Live in France,iQIYI in China and beIN Sports for the Middle East, North Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, amongst others.
For more information about the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship event, please visitwww.ironman.com/im703-world-championship.