Kat Matthews and Magnus Ditlev top 70.3 Swansea fields as IRONMAN Pro Series heads to Wales

We’ve known that Kat Matthews was always planning to race IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea – the latest stop on the IRONMAN Pro Series – but Magnus Ditlev‘s presence there next weekend (Sunday 13 July) is a welcome surprise.

British star Matthews was the Pro Series women’s champion last year and has made a superb start to 2025.

She won IRONMAN Texas and was then a close runner up to Laura Philipp at IRONMAN Hamburg, repeating their one-two from the IRONMAN World Championship last year.

Plenty of rivals for Kat

Swansea offers an ideal first opportunity of a maximum 70.3 points haul to further enhance her Pro Series ambitions and she will be the overwhelming favourite on what are relatively ‘home’ roads.

Germany’s Anne Reischmann, who won IRONMAN South Africa earlier this season, currently tops the standings (from three races to Matthews’ two) and is also racing in Wales.

Also challenging for the title and IRONMAN Pro Series points will be Daniela Kleiser (GER) – one of only two women ranked higher than Matthews in the PTO’s run standings.

She already has the IRONMAN 70.3 Valencia title under her belt this year as well as two fourth place finishes at IRONMAN Pro Series races (IRONMAN 70.3 Eagleman and IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo).

Hanne De Vet (BEL) is making huge strides too having won Challenge Family’s ‘The Championship’ in fantastic style in May.

Wearing bib number one and looking to defend her title in Swansea will be Nikki Bartlett (GBR), who was also the fifth-place finisher at the 2024 IRONMAN World Championship triathlon in Nice. She is first racing Challenge Roth this Sunday (6 July).

Also part of a strong British contingent is Lizzie Rayner, who comes here on the back of an impressive second place at 70.3 Aix-en-Provence, along with Megan Mcdonald, Laura Addie and Lydia Dant.

Ditlev takes on the Brits

In the men’s race, Ditlev has unfinished business after his frustrating ‘temporary’ disqualification at IRONMAN Frankfurt and will be hard to beat if lining up.

Bib number one belongs to defending champion Harry Palmer (GBR), whose win last year was followed by an eighth-place finish at the 2024 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship race in Taupō. 
 
Heading to Swansea for the first time will be 2024 IRONMAN World Championship fourth-place finisher Leon Chevalier (FRA). 
 
Cameron Wurf (AUS) also plans to start his seventh IRONMAN Pro Series race of the season, and currently sits second in the standings.  
 
Not to be counted out are British trio Sam Dickinson, Kieran Lindars and Matthew Collins, who had a breakthrough performance with third place at 70.3 Eagleman in June. 

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