It’s the most eagerly-anticipated race of an action-packed season as the women have the day all to themselves for the last time in the foreseeable future at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona.
The spiritual home of the sport will revert to hosting both men and women on the same day from 2026 onwards but we have an absolute treat in store before then – and here’s all you need to know…
Date, start time and how to watch live
The women’s professional race in Kona gets under way at 06:25 local time on Saturday October 11 – from Kailua Pier. That corresponds to 17:25 UK time, 18:25 CET. That is 12:25 on the East Coast of the United States and 09:25 on the West Coast. In Australia, it’s 03:25 on Sunday morning in Sydney, or if you’re in New Zealand then it’s 05:25 on Sunday there.
You can watch the race live right here without leaving TRI247 via the embed below.
Live race day coverage will also be broadcast for free across multiple platforms for global viewers including proseries.ironman.com, DAZN, and YouTube, as well as Outside TV in the U.S. and Canada, L’Équipe in France, HR in Germany, ESPN (within Disney+) in Latin America and the Caribbean, iQIYI in China, and SuperSport in South Africa.
And as ever, the IRONMAN Tracker app on your phone / mobile device, alongside the broadcast coverage, is your essential companion to keep up to date with all of the on-course action.
The Kona course
Laura Siddall, who recently retired from the professional ranks and made the top 10 here in Kona in 2022, is our eyes and ears on the ground in Hawaii this week.
You can catch up with her daily updates here and who better to describe the course the world’s best triathletes will face on Saturday.
Laura has had time for a quick refresher this week of the swim, bike and run elements and she told us: “The IRONMAN World Championship course has an ocean swim, a rolling bike course through the Lava fields, and a predominantly flat to rolling run course.
“The race starts at the infamous Dig Me Beach with a one lap swim. It’s a simple one lap, straight out form the beach, around the Body Glove boat and back to the Pier.
“The 180km bike course starts off with a fast hot lap around town, with athletes jostling for position, trying to find who they came out the water with, in front, or behind. Then it’s out onto the Queen K for 60km for big rolling highway before you start the climb up to Hawi. Once at the turn around, the descent down from Hawi still amazingly has a significant amount of climbing as you head back to the Queen K. If you are still riding strong by the Airport (about 10km from T2) you are probably doing well.
“The run, one big lap with out and backs first, along Ali’I Drive, before heading up Palani and out onto the Queen K. It’s then a fairly desolate out and back, along those big rollers again before turning down into the Energy Lab. The infamous Energy Lab, where, what goes in, doesn’t necessarily come out. Back to town, the quad busting descent down Palani, and then the longest final mile ever, to the finish line, back at the start at Dig Me beach.”
Who’s racing IMWC Kona?
Pretty much everyone. And the big guns all come here in prime form too.
Laura Siddall has provided a detailed analysis of all the main contenders and how she thinks the race will play out here, but in a nutshell we have the last three champions, who all have big chances of a repeat – Laura Philipp (2024), Lucy Charles-Barclay (2023) and Chelsea Sodaro (2022).
The other two who have to be classed in the first bracket of favourites are last year’s runner-up Kat Matthews and Taylor Knibb, who has won the last three middle-distance World Championships.
There are plenty of others who will fancy chances of a top-five spot or even a podium place and Laura’s preview runs the rule over them.
Who’s not racing?
Just the two withdrawals from the original start list at the time of writing.
That’s last year’s Olympic silver medallist Julie Derron, who won by nearly 40 minutes in her one full-distance race this season but hasn’t recovered in time from a bike crash.
And Els Visser, who says she has also been dealing with an injury over the summer which is heading in the right direction but not in time for her to be in peak form on the Big Island.
And in a race of this quality you absolutely need to be 100%.
Click here for the latest start list.
Big-race analysis and predictions
We’re rightly leaving the analysis to Laura Siddall but for what it’s worth if we had to pick our podium then we feel history will repeat itself from when the women’s race was last held in Kona.
That day saw a wire-to-wire victory for Lucy Charles-Barclay in what was a one-two for uber-coach Dan Lorang as the now-retired Anne Haug chased LCB home.
This time it’s Taylor Knibb, whose season has been building to the most important phase of the year, who we believe can belie her relative inexperience at full-distance to take second place.
The men’s race in Nice last month saw five in a line early in the marathon and it wouldn’t surprise us if this too turns into a thriller – and we’re going with reigning champ (from Nice) Laura Philipp to round out the podium just ahead of Kat Matthews.
Of the relative outsiders who could make a splash, Norway’s Solveig Løvseth stands out for us.
What is the IRONMAN Pro Series?
Saturday’s race will go a long way to also deciding the women’s winner of the season-long IRONMAN Pro Series.
Kat Matthews leads the way and is on course to repeat her title from last season.
The Pro Series is an 18-race schedule at 17 locations which has ventured to Australasia, Europe, North America and Africa. It has an end-of-year bonus pool totalling $1.7m, which is on top of the prize money awarded for each race.
The best five scores (up to three IRONMANs) count and the winners of full-distance events will be allocated a maximum of 5000 points for winning, with 2,500 awarded in 70.3 races. Those totals go up to 6,000 and 3,000 respectively for the upcoming World Championships.
Points for all remaining professional finishers will diminish based on the time deficit to first place at a rate of 1 point per 1 second to the first place finish time. There is no points minimum, or “floor”. Points will accumulate throughout the season.
A cool $200,000 is on offer for the series winner on both the men’s and women’s side, with second earning €130,000 and third receiving $85,000. The cumulative payout for the 2025 season is €2,450,000.
And in terms of on-the-day remuneration…
Prize Money – What’s on offer?
For the women’s race in Kona, the total prize purse is $375,000, with the race winner earning $125,000 and the prize pot paying down to 15th position. It’s allocated as follows:
1st – $125,000
2nd – $65,000
3rd – $45,000
4th – $25,000
5th – $20,000
6th – $18,000
7th – $15,000
8th – $13,000
9th – $12,000
10th – $11,000
11th – $8,000
12th – $6,000
13th – $5,000
14th – $4,000
15th – $3,000
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