Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Stacked fields as world’s best head to Taupo

Having originally been due to stage the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in 2020, the pandemic forced a delay for the eager host town of Taupo that ultimately extended to four years.

It should be worth the wait. The big weekend of racing is around the corner, a stellar cast of more than 110 female and male pros will line up with around 6,000 age-groupers in one of the biggest multisport festivals New Zealand’s North Island has seen..

With a share of the $500k prize purse on offer as well as being the final event in the Ironman Pro Series, there is plenty to play for in what should be a thrilling climax to the year. The good news for UK viewers is that the action provides some tea-time viewing entertainment on Friday, 7pm (women) and Saturday, 7pm (men).

Ahead of that we take you through the main contenders, including the British athletes who are racing.

Who will win the Ironman 70.3 World Championships?

Women’s race

Taylor Knibb will roll into Taupo trying to win a third Ironman 70.3 World Championship in a row to match the feat of Switzerland’s Daniela Ryf from 2017-2019.

Knibb’s victories in Utah in 2022 and then Finland last year were both solo breakaways founded on race-best bike legs and as the newly-crowned T100 world champion, the 26-year-old will start as a red-hot favourite in New Zealand.

The Colorado-based star is on a run of nine straight 70.3 and 100km victories, with her last defeat in September 2022 in Dallas, where Australian Ashleigh Gentle took advantage of sweltering conditions in Texas to run her down.

Gentle will again be one of the major threats and while her focus has been the 100km distance more than the slightly longer 70.3 format, there will be no-one in the field with a more feared run leg.

That said, Switzerland’s Julie Derron is barely a step or two behind and in a breakthrough year that saw her win individual Olympic silver and back it up with three consecutive runners-up spots in the T100 season, another podium looks well within her grasp.

Another Swiss enjoying a high performing year is Imogen Simmonds. With an exclusive focus on the T100 series, Simmonds has put health issues behind her, with the highlight being finishing second to Gentle in London. Third last year in the 70.3 Worlds behind Kat Matthews and Knibb in Finland, Simmonds should be well suited to the attritional bike course in Taupo.

Matthews will also be competing and while a first Ironman world title would be a remarkable achievement, the first priority is a solid finish time that should see her wrap up the Ironman Pro Series and claim the $200k top prize to add to the $75k for finishing fourth overall in the T100 standings.

With two Ironman wins and a second place at the Ironman World Championship in Nice, Matthews has straddled the demands of the two non-drafting series better than anyone in 2024. But given she has now twice finished runner-up in the Ironman Worlds and runner-up at the 70.3 Worlds, the top step would be very welcome.

There are four other GB names on the 62-strong women’s start-list, including renowned swimmer and London 2012 Olympian Lucy Buckingham, two-time 70.3 Worlds top 10 finisher Nikki Bartlett, debutant Lizzie Rayner and 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Jodie Stimpson, who is looking to reignite her middle distance career.

Ironman 70.3 World Championship. Full pro women’s start-list.

Men’s race

If the women’s race has a clear favourite, then the men’s edition is far tougher to call, partly because most of the main contenders are inexperienced at the distance.

Hayden Wilde is one of the biggest stars on the list. The Olympic silver medallist and Super League champion has competed in only a handful of non-drafting events, but has raced in Taupo before, five years ago, where he placed third behind an all-conquering Kyle Smith.

Wilde will relish the contest on home soil, and as long as he can condition himself to the time-trial bike should find his strong bike-run qualities make him tough to beat.

Fellow Paris Olympic medallist Leo Bergere joins Wilde on the start-list, and remains undefeated in Ironman 70.3 contests having raced once at the start of the season for the past three years. But those victories in Lanzarote, Oceanside and Valencia against quality fields have shown enough to suggest he can win in Taupo.

Smith also has to be a strong contender. Another home talent, he excels racing in New Zealand, and the Kiwi has won twice in Taupo previously, knows the course inside out, and will relish the local support as he tries to build on a T100 series that saw him start as a wildcard and finish runner-up overall.

Defending champion Rico Bogen will have his work cut out to retain the title, but did record his best result of the season last month by placing second in the T100 Grand Final in Dubai.

Elsewhere, Belgium’s Jelle Geens is another short-course athlete making the transition to non-drafting racing and became the first – and to date only – individual to beat Marten Van Riel. His potential to deliver a race-best half marathon shouldn’t be ruled out.

Other T100 racers, France’s Mathis Margirier and Netherlands’ Youri Keulen, look to have the ability to threaten, and Italy’s Gregory Barnaby and USA’s Matthew Marquardt have additional incentive knowing that the Ironman Pro Series is on the line.

Three Brits line up including Harry Palmer, Tom Davis and Tom Bishop. Palmer won Challenge Wales and Ironman 70.3 Swansea this summer, while Davis has been a prolific racer, but only managed one podium in Challenge Salou in Spain. The highlight of Bishop’s season was second place in Challenge Roth.

All three could contend for the top 10 and it’s worth noting that last year in Lahti, both the unfancied Josh Lewis (fifth) and James Teagle (seventh), were at the sharp end of the racing throughout the contest.

Ironman 70.3 World Championship. Full pro men’s start-list.