Redemption: Great Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay Claims Victory at the 2025 Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Triathlon in Marbella, Spain

November 9, 2025

– Taylor Knibb (USA) and Tanja Neubert (DEU) earn second and third spots on the podium in a thrilling race at the 2025 Precision & Fuel IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon

– Kat Matthews (GBR) retires from the race during the run leg but holds on to claim the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series Overall Champion title

MARBELLA, Spain (November 9, 2025) /ENDURANCE SPORTSWIRE/ – 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:

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.

Full results for the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship women’s race can be found at www.ironman.com/races/im703-world-championship-2025/results.

For more information about the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship event, please visit www.ironman.com/races/im703-world-championship-2025. To learn more about the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 brands and series of events, please visit www.ironman.com. Media inquiries may be directed to press@ironman.com.

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 About the Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship

The IRONMAN^® 70.3^® Triathlon Series is the world’s premier middle-distance triathlon series culminating in the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship. Introduced in 2006 in Clearwater, Florida, the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship has grown in stature and popularity to become an annual test for the world’s elite triathletes. The event moved first to Henderson, Nevada in 2011, where athletes encountered a more challenging terrain and then to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec—its first stop on the new “global rotation” for the race. The event reached European soil for the first time ever in 2015, with Zell am See, Austria, and in 2016, the race moved from the mountains to the beaches of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia for its first stop in Asia-Pacific. In 2017, the race returned to the United States, taking place in Chattanooga, Tennessee where it underwent another major change to become a two-day event. In 2018, the event reached the African continent and was hosted in Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa. From here, it has continued to be hosted in some of the world’s most inspiring and beautiful destinations, including Nice, France; St. George, Utah; Lahti, Finland; and Taupō, New Zealand. As the event has continued its global rotation, it has brought about some of the most compelling triathlon racing annually thanks to the attraction of Olympic distance specialists to middle- and long-distance triathletes, all competing together to see who reigns supreme. This year, the event comes to Spain for the first time with Marbella as host location on November 8-9, 2025. The City of Nice will then continue its rich history with triathlon and world championship events, hosting the 2026 and 2028 editions of the race. Historically, more than 200,000 athletes have participated annually in a series of qualifying races, consisting of over 100 global events. Hosting more than 6,000 athletes from around the world, participants in the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon have ranged in age from 18 to 85-plus. For more information, visit www.ironman.com/im703-world-championship.

About IRONMAN Pro Series

The IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based world series that showcases and rewards top professional triathletes as they vie for points and event prize money, on their way to claiming the title of IRONMAN Pro Series champion and a lion’s share of the lucrative $1.7 million USD year-end bonus prize pool.  Along the way, athletes will battle for the prize money offered at each individual IRONMAN Pro Series triathlon, equating to over $2.5 million USD, as well as coveted world championship qualifying slots. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the IRONMAN Pro Series ushers in a new era of IRONMAN racing where Every Second Matters – every second behind the race winner equates to a point earned or lost. Incorporating iconic distances, challenging courses, and stunning destinations, every IRONMAN Pro Series race will be broadcast live and free to a global audience. In 2025, the IRONMAN Pro Series will be contested over 18 events and 17 race locations around the globe, including a combination of six IRONMAN^® and eight IRONMAN^® 70.3^® triathlons, as well as the IRONMAN World Championship® women’s and men’s races and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon. An additional 40 events outside of the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series will also offer IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 professional racing fields with world championship qualifying opportunities, and over $1.8 million USD in prize money. This creates a total professional prize purse of over $6 million USD in 2025. For more information, visit proseries.ironman.com.

About The IRONMAN Group

The IRONMAN Group is the world’s largest operator of participation sports with a portfolio of brands, events, media, partners, merchandise, and digital platforms operating in over 50 countries worldwide. A global portfolio consisting of hundreds of events includes the IRONMAN^® Triathlon Series, the IRONMAN^® 70.3^® Triathlon Series, 5150® Triathlon Series, IRONKIDS^®, premier running events including the Rock ‘n’ Roll^® Running Series, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon™ and City2Surf^®, the UTMB^® World Series of trail running, the Epic Series™ of mountain biking including the Absa Cape Epic^®, and a collection of road cycling and other multisport races. Since the inception of the iconic IRONMAN^® brand and its first event in 1978, millions of athletes have proven that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE^® by crossing finish lines around the world. From its beginnings as a single race among friends in Hawai’i, The IRONMAN Group has become a global sensation and collection of high-growth lifestyle brands that inspire people to unlock their potential in life. For more information, visit www.ironman.com/about-ironman-group