Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) cemented her name in the history books at the 2025 IRONMAN® 70.3® World Championship with a finish time of 4:14:54 on the streets of Marbella, and the region of Andalucia, claiming her second IRONMAN 70.3 world title.
After bowing out late into the run of last month’s IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i, the British athlete made a remarkable comeback storming to victory ahead of America’s Taylor Knibb, who also sought redemption after retiring from a late lead in Hawai’i. Germany’s Tanja Neubert completed the day’s podium with a third place finish on her IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship debut.
“The day started pretty well, right out of the swim I had a look back and saw that I had a decent gap. Out on the bike I had company with Taylor, obviously, I know how phenomenal she is on the bike, I knew if I could stay with her, it could be my ticket to the win today,” said Charles-Barclay after the win. “I felt super strong on that run, and I just couldn’t be more happy with how the day panned out. It’s been a really tough time and we’ve had some really tough family things going on. I had some angel wings out there today and I think they helped me fly around the course. I’m really grateful that I could do that for them and all the team that have gotten me here. It hasn’t been easy, but we made it, and it has definitely made up for the disappointment of Kona, for sure.”
2025 Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Race Recap
A bright view of the planet Venus rising on the horizon followed by a beautiful sunrise greeted female athletes in Marbella as the 2025 Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship women’s race got underway. True to form, Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) got off to a flying start, surging to an early lead and pushing the pace hard. She would continue to open up the gap throughout the 1.9km (1.2-mile) ROKA swim, expertly navigating the ocean swell to exit the water first in 25:05 – a commanding lead of 47 seconds to Taylor Knibb (USA) and Jess Learmonth (GBR) in second and third. Fourth out of the water was Djenyfer Arnold (BRA), followed by a large group between 2:05 to 2:20 minutes down on Charles-Barclay, featuring the likes of Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR), Caroline Pohle (DEU), Kat Matthews (GBR), Ellie Salthouse (AUS), Solveig Løvseth (NOR), and Paula Findlay (CAN).
Once out onto the 90km (56-mile) ZOOT bike course, Knibb wasted no time getting up to speed and had caught and passed Charles-Barclay to take the lead within the first 10km. As the riders continued to climb, Knibb slowly began to extend away from the rest of the field. However, in a repeat of last month's race in Kona, Charles-Barclay was determined to not let Knibb get too far out of sight, capitalising on her descending skills to bridge the gap back to Knibb to rejoin her at the front of the race. Findlay was also one of the early quick riders, joining Learmonth around 20km as the pair took turns riding in third and fourth.
By the halfway point, Knibb and Charles-Barclay had a 2:48 lead to Learmonth, and a 3:30-3:40 lead on Findlay, Sif Bendix Madsen (DNK), and Matthews. Behind the leaders and chase group, Marjolaine Pierré (FRA) was having a stellar ride, moving up from 19th out of the water to seventh after 60km, while Tanja Neubert was putting together a solid race, sitting around eighth place with a formidable run still to come. As the riders flew down the final descent toward T2, Knibb and Charles-Barclay remained together, with Knibb hitting the ROUVY transition first after a 2:28:36 bike. The trio of Matthews, Learmonth, and Bendix Madsen were next into transition, 3:49 down on the leaders, with Findlay dropped on the descent and reaching T2 with a 5:24 deficit to the front.
Knibb flew onto the 21.1km (13.1-mile) HOKA run course, opening up a 26 second gap to Charles-Barclay within the first 2km, with the distance between the front two remaining consistent for the first 5km before Charles-Barclay began to pick up the pace and close the gap. Charles-Barclay took the lead at the 7km mark and wouldn’t look back, slowly opening up an unassailable lead as she wound her way around the crowd-lined streets of Marbella.
Behind the leading duo Matthews came off the bike in third position, closing a 3:49 gap on the leaders down to 2:45 by the 5km mark and looking like she may run down the leaders as the run went on, however she was unfortunately forced to retire not long after, with a crippling calf issue ending her day prematurely. Matthews’ retirement promoted Jess Learmonth into third place, with Tanja Neubert up to fourth. With Charles-Barclay and Knibb well out in front, IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship rookie Neubert chipped away at Learmonth, moving into third by 8km into the run.
After almost four and a quarter hours on the racecourse Charles-Barclay made her way onto the crowd lined finish chute on Puerto Banús Beach, taking the finish tape to become a two-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion. Knibb crossed the line three minutes later, with Neubert 7:12 behind the champion.
Top five professional women’s results:?
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News and Notes?
- Lucy Charles-Barclay set the fastest professional time in the ROKA swim, covering the 1.9km course in 25:05.
- The fastest bike time of the day was set by Taylor Knibb, who clocked in at 2:28:36.
- Charles-Barclay was the runner to catch, finishing the half marathon in 1:17:14.
- Tanja Neubert claimed third position on her IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship debut, which also marked her second ever professional IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon.
- World Championship contender Kat Matthews forced to retire during the run with a calf injury, but despite this, had enough points from her other top races to claim back-to-back IRONMAN Pro Series titles
- Charles-Barclay won her second IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship title, becoming the third female to win multiple world titles, joining Daniella Ryf (5) and Taylor Knibb (3)
- On her way to victory Charles-Barclay set her fastest ever IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon run split.
- Four British athletes finished in the top 10 – Charles-Barclay (1st), Georgia Taylor-Brown (4th), Jess Learmonth (7th) and Lizzie Rayner (8th).
- Today was also the first IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship since 2012 where the champion did not set the fastest bike time.
Tomorrow, the men will take centre stage as the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship men’s race gets underway. The professional men will start at 7:50 a.m. CET, followed by the PC/ID division at 7:52 a.m. The first age-group athlete wave will begin at 8:00 a.m. Live race day coverage will start at start at 7:30 a.m. CET and be broadcast across multiple platforms for global viewers including?
proseries.ironman.com, DAZN, YouTube, RTVE Play in Spain, Outside TV exclusively for the U.S. and Canada, L’Équipe in France, sportschau.de in Germany, ESPN (within Disney+) for viewers in the Caribbean and Latin America,
iQIYI in China, SuperSport in South Africa, and beIN Sports in the Middle East and North Africa.
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