Harry Palmer’s impressive season has come to a frustrating early end after the British triathlete revealed that he is suffering from a hip injury.
The 29-year-old was enjoying his best season as a professional, having already won twice – at Challenge Family’s ‘The Championship’ and IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea – and finishing third at IRONMAN 70.3 Sweden.
His next target was to tackle IRONMAN Wales in mid-September, but the advice from his medical team has been to call an end to the campaign before he does any more damage to the troublesome joint.
Wales hopes ended by injury
Despite having qualified for this year’s 70.3 World Championships, Palmer was planning to stay in the UK and tackle a race which has already dealt him a hefty slice of bad luck in his career, recording a DNF in 2022.
On that occasion, he was forced to stop after picking up three punctures on the bike and not having enough replacement tubes.
His hopes for redemption in a season which has already seen him win in the principality have, however, sadly hit the buffers, and he must now turn his attentions to continuing that form when he picks up again in 2027.
After completing the biggest win of his career at ‘The Championship’, he had hoped it would be a sign of better things to come when he said: “This finally feels like a step in the right direction again after some not-so-good results at the back end of last year.”
‘You just gotta roll with the punches’
Revealing the news on his Instagram page, a clearly disappointed Palmer said it would simply be too much of a risk for him to carry on and hope that everything would be OK.
“I started getting a bit of pain in my left hip and found out on Saturday, just gone, that I have a stress response in my femoral neck,” he said. “So basically in my hip, and I guess the good news is it’s not a stress fracture. It’s a stress response, and there is quite a big difference.
“But he has said that to build up to IRONMAN Wales would be quite a silly thing to do. You never know, I could be absolutely fine. And it would just be painful, and it could stay as a stress response. But if I fall into that (turning into a) stress fracture, well, yeah, it’s not good.
“I’m trying to be positive and have a positive swing, but it’s not the best. To finish your season in August is just the most crazy thing in the world, but I guess you just gotta roll with the punches and take everything as it comes.”
Previous success in Welsh races
Palmer, who started his career in 2019, has podiumed six times while competing in Wales, with his 70.3 Swansea win this year capping a hat-trick of three wins in three years at the race, while he also finished first, second and third at Challenge Wales between 2022 and 2024.
He is also the co-host of the Uncomfortable Triathlon podcast alongside Andrew Horsfall-Turner, which you can listen to by heading to their Instagram page, HERE.
