Star-studded line-up revealed for women’s IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds – but will they all show up?

Taylor Knibb, the winner in each of the last three years, tops the recently-released start list for the women’s IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella on Saturday 8th November.

Start lists always need to be taken with a pinch of salt or at least labelled as ‘provisional’ and that’s very much the case here as the race will come exactly four weeks after American star Knibb came to a standstill deep into the run when looking set for victory in the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona.

The searing heat and humidity led to the heart-breaking end for Knibb and she could only sit on the roadside and watch helplessly as Norway’s Solveig Løvseth ran past on her way to victory.

It was a similar situation for Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay, also a 70.3 Worlds winner, a little earlier in that race so it remains to be seen whether than duo recover quickly enough to line up in Spain.

Kat in pole position

The race is also the culmination of the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series and the last chance for professional athletes to score points towards their final standings, with a maximum of 3,000 points on offer to the winner in Marbella.

Last year’s winner Kat Matthews (GBR) leads the way in that, with the female and male winners each earning a bonus payout of $200,000 each from a total bonus prize pool of $1.7million.

Matthews finished runner-up to Knibb at both the 2023 and 2024 70.3 World Championships and was a close-up second in Kona last month.

Sitting 827 points behind Matthews in the Pro Series is Løvseth and the duo are guaranteed the top two spots – and though the order could yet change, it would require a huge turnaround.

GTB makes 70.3 Worlds debut

Fellow IRONMAN World Champion Laura Philipp (DEU) also joins the star-studded start list in Marbella. She has previously podiumed at the 70.3 World Championship (2017) and has twice won IRONMAN 70.3 Marbella.

Other challengers set to line up in Marbella include 2024 70.3 World Championship top 10 finishers Paula Findlay (CAN) – who was runner-up in 2022 – Ellie Salthouse (AUS), Caroline Pohle (DEU), and Grace Thek (AUS).

Meanwhile, British Olympic gold medallists Georgia Taylor-Brown and Jess Learmonth will make their 70.3 World Championship triathlon debuts in Marbella, with the former posting “Oh Lordy” when IRONMAN posted the start list on social media!

Women’s provisional start list – Sat 8th Nov