Britain’s Simone Dailey saved the best for last as she bowed out of professional competition by completing the biggest win of her career at IRONMAN Arizona on Sunday.
In a quite remarkable performance, the 37-year-old battled back from being a full ten minutes adrift of the leaders after the opening swim, putting in an impressive bike section that moved her from 11th to second, before then storming away to secure a memorable win.
Her last two outings at Chattanooga and Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendée saw her pick up a DQ and a DNF, respectively, as she struggled to make an impact in her final year of competition.
“This is the best ending that I could have wished for, having come in today with zero expectations. I just wanted to finish,” she said after the race. “Over the last couple of years, I have had some pretty bad luck when it comes to racing, so it was really nice to have a race where nothing went wrong and it was simply down to my fitness.”
The pre-race talk for the men’s race had centred around American Sam Long and whether he would be able to compete with his wife expecting a new baby boy.
As it turned out, he was able to race, and his wife was there to see him in action, but he could not force what would have been a win on what he described this week as his home course.
Dutchman Menno Koolhaas was in imperious form as he took the lead in the swim and never looked back, eventually beating Long into second place by eight minutes and 29 seconds.
This was the final event to be held in the City of Tempe after 20 years, and was a fitting finale with some truly impressive performances that saw the top three of both races secure their places at Kona for next year’s World Championships.
Here’s how the races played out…
Pro Men – Masterclass from Koolhaas as Long takes second
The men were first to get going as the hooter signalled the start of their race at 6:40am, and it didn’t take long for Koolhas to take a grip on the proceedings.
Taking the lead midway through the 3.8km swim in Tempe Town Lake, he never really looked in any trouble for the remainder of the race.
He was first out of the water with a time of 48:00, as a lead group of ten athletes all entered T1 within the space of 11 seconds, with Switzerland’s Andrea Salvisberg being followed by Kanute, Josh Lewis (GGY), Brock Hoel (CAN), Thomas Davies (GBR), Matt McElroy (USA), Levente Lukacs (HUN) and Simon Shi (USA).
Long’s swim of 52:00 saw him back in 16th, but everyone in the field would have known that his two strongest disciplines were yet to come.
Koolhaas, Kanute and Salvisberg set off first from T1 and by the 60km mark, they had been joined by Lewis in a strong-looking breakaway group. Long had, by this time, made his way up through the field and was sitting three minutes behind them in fifth.
Entering T2, Koolhaas was still ahead, followed by Kanute and Salvisberg, but Long had also caught up with and overtaken Lewis to start the run section in fourth place.
Long admitted after the race that he had probably gone off too fast in the run as he bid to chase down the leader, and by the 16km marker, he was already up to third before then overtaking Kanute to take second spot soon after.
The gap between him and Koolhaas at the 18km point was just four minutes, but Long was to pay for his fast start and would eventually finish eight-and-a-half minutes behind the Dutchman, with Kanute a further two minutes back.
After the race, Koolhaas said: “It feels amazing. I came to win it, and to actually win it like this is crazy. I took the lead in the swim, did most of the work on the bike, started the run in first place and ended in first place, finishing with a sub-7:30 in an IRONMAN, and to secure a Kona slot, it’s the perfect day.”
Long was full of praise for the man who beat him: “Hats off to Menno, it was a phenomenal race from him, and also hats off to Ben Kanute. We were having to duke it out in the final miles; he was 30 seconds back, and I had to step on the gas.
“Obviously, I wanted to win, but Menno was just a class above. I felt that in Nice I executed the best IRONMAN of my career, and today I feel that I have stepped it up again, so that is progress.”
Pro Women – Brilliant Dailey ends career on a high
Spaniard Lara Hernandez-Tome was first out of the water in the women’s race with a time of 49:45, almost a full minute ahead of Margarita Ryan (USA) and nearly three minutes before Zilinskas.
Britain’s Jodie Stimpson was fourth with a swim of 55:21, while Curridori was down in eighth (58:58) and Dailey was a full ten minutes back in 11th (59:51).
Dailey made her big move on the bike, along with American Alice Alberts, as they stormed through the field to end the leg in second and first places, respectively. Zilinskas entered T2 in third, with long-time leader Hernandez-Tome dropping to fourth.
An indication of the effort being put in by Dailey could be seen from her pace time of 24.86mph, the fastest of all the athletes in the field.
Alberts managed to stay at the front of the run until the 18km mark, when she was finally overtaken by a double move from Zilinkas and Dailey. Curridori was now in fourth and also closing in on Alberts.
Dailey hit the front after 20km, and by the 30km she had built a healthy two-minute lead over Zilinskas and five minutes on Curridori, who had by now moved into third.
As the marathon came to an end, Dailey strode away to complete a comfortable win with a run time of 02:59:45 and an overall finishing time of 08:37:17. Zilinskas finished in 03:05:22 (08:41:41), and Curridori beat off strong resistance from Alberts to secure the final podium place with a run of 3:04:40 (08:44:46).
Italian Curridori said: “This is one of the best days of my life. Kona had left me with so many emotions and memories that I wanted to jump into another race as soon as possible. Everything went so perfect for me, and I am so happy.
“I knew it was my last race of the season, and I just wanted to go for it. I struggled a little on the run, but to have qualified for Kona is really unbelievable.”
IRONMAN Arizona 2025 results
Sunday November 16, 2025 – 3.8km / 180km / 42.2km
Pro Men
- 1. Menno Koolhaas (NDL) 07:28:52
- 2. Sam Long (USA) 07:37:22
- 3. Ben Kanute (USA) 07:38:57
Pro Women
- 1. Simone Dailey (GBR) 08:37:17
- 2. Rachel Zilinskas (USA) 08:41:41
- 3. Elisabetta Curridori (ITA) 08:44:46
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