On Sunday June 1, Hamburg will play host to the IRONMAN® European Championship triathlon for professional women. Top female triathletes will not only be competing for IRONMAN European Champion bragging rights, but they will also be racing for a maximum of 5,000 points towards IRONMAN® Pro Series standings, a piece of the $87,500 USD prize purse, and five qualifying slots to the 2025 IRONMAN World Championship® triathlon in Kailua-Kona. The race marks the eighth stop on the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series circuit, the third IRONMAN triathlon, and the third race in Europe.
The IRONMAN European Championship for professional men will take place in Frankfurt four weeks later on Sunday 29 June.
The event can be viewed live in person and will be broadcast across multiple platforms for viewers around the world, for free, including proseries.ironman.com, Outside TV for US and Canada viewers, DAZN and L'Equipe in France, iQIYI and YouTube among others.
Reigning IRONMAN European Champion, Jackie Hering will be wearing bib number one. Hering stormed to victory last year in her first IRONMAN triathlon since 2015, taking the tape in a time of 08:19:14. Hering finished second in last year’s IRONMAN Pro Series, and currently sits in tenth place in this year’s standings thanks to already having two IRONMAN® 70.3® triathlon podiums under her belt (Athlete Brewing IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside and Intermountain Health IRONMAN 70.3 St George North American Championship triathlons).
Most likely to threaten her crown are some of the fastest racers in IRONMAN triathlon history; Laura Philipp (DEU) and Kat Matthews (GBR). At the 2022 edition of the race, Philipp recorded the fastest women’s IRONMAN triathlon time (08:18:20) to take the win, a time which stood until just a month ago when Matthews’ win in Texas set a new IRONMAN best time of 8:10:34.
Philipp and Matthews are not unfamiliar with competing alongside each other. In the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship triathlon in Nice, the two were neck and neck for a large chunk of the race and viewers were treated to an epic run battle on the Promenade des Anglais, which eventually saw Philipp breaking off around the seven-mile mark to take the win, and Matthews taking a deserved second place.
For Philipp, this will be her first race in the IRONMAN Pro Series, while Matthews, who has made no secret she’s after the ‘perfect IRONMAN Pro Series score’, took the tape for the third consecutive year at the Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Texas North American Championship triathlon a month ago.
2025 IRONMAN African Champion, Anne Reischmann (DEU) should also not be counted out. Reischmann currently sits atop of the IRONMAN Pro Series standings due to a phenomenal win at the ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship in March, and a solid fifth place finish at IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo triathlon a month later.
Danielle Lewis (USA), who comes fresh off a second-place finish at Intermountain Health IRONMAN 70.3 St. George North American Championship triathlon this weekend is also slated to toe the line. After a DNF in Texas, Lewis will undoubtedly be hungry to add to her IRONMAN Pro Series scoreboard and improve on her impressive sixth place finish in the series last year.
Making her IRONMAN triathlon debut will be Norwegian Solveig Løvseth, who has three IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon victories to her name, including this year’s IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo triathlon.
Other names likely to play a big part in the dynamics of the race include Marjolaine Pierré (FRA) who came fourth at the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship race; fifth place finisher at Memorial Hermann IRONMAN North American Championship Texas, Sara Svensk (SWE); Els Visser (NLD), and more.
The full start list is below (subject to change)
Nearly 3,000 age-groupers will also race alongside the professionals, at this fan-favourite race that features a city-centre location, flat and fast bike and run course and epic spectator support. Athletes will take on a 3.8km (2.4 mile) long ROKA swim course?in the Inner and Outer Alster lake, which promises calm and smooth conditions. They will then embark on the ZOOT bike course, which consists of two loops, passing by some of the best sights such as the Reeperbahn, the fish market and the UNESCO-listed Speicherstadt out into the idyllic Vier- und Marschlande. The four-loop 42.2 km (26.2 mile) HOKA run course?is the crowning finale with an incomparable atmosphere in downtown Hamburg, making it a spectator dream.
For more information about the Qatar Airways IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship triathlon, visit: ironman.com/races/im-hamburg. To learn more about the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 brands and series of events, please visit?www.ironman.com.