Julie Derron booked her Kona slot and underlined she could be a threat to all at the IRONMAN World Championship with another emphatic full-distance victory, this time on home roads in Switzerland in a women-only pro race.
The world number four, who was second to Cassandre Beaugrand at the Paris Olympics in 2024, made her IRONMAN debut back in 2022 when she was second in Italy but didn’t race full-distance again until this time last year when she won IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz by nearly 40 minutes.
However she missed out on Kona following a bike crash and this represented one of the last chances to book a spot for Hawaii this season.
Derron runs away with it
She took it in brilliant style too – and again with an emphatic winning margin.
It was compatriot Imogen Simmonds, racing her first IRONMAN for five years, who set the pace on the swim as she clocked 52:51, nearly four minutes ahead of Derron in second.
The gap actually went out in the early stages of the bike but by the halfway point Derron had cut it to three minutes and by the time they arrived at T2 there were just 45 seconds between them.
Derron is renowned as one of the sport’s quickest runners and it took her less than three kilometres of the marathon to power into the lead and she never looked back.
After the first half marathon she was nearly six minutes clear of Simmonds, with third-placed Leana Bissig (SUI) a whopping 20 minutes back in third.
And the gap between the first two had more than doubled by the finish line, a 2:52 marathon giving Derron victory by just under 14 minutes from Simmonds, with two Kona places on offer. Derron joins her sister Nina on the Big Island, the latter having qualified at IRONMAN Lanzarote.
A quickest-of-the-day 2:51:06 from Loanne Duvoisin (SUI) saw her overhaul Bissig late on for third.
IRONMAN Switzerland results 2026
Sunday 5 July 2026, 3.8km | 180km | 42.2km
| Position | Athlete | Nationality | Swim | Bike | Run | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Julie Derron | SUI | 56:44 | 4:47:41 | 2:52:26 | 8:42:40 |
| 2 | Imogen Simmonds | SUI | 52:51 | 4:50:52 | 3:06:53 | 8:56:27 |
| 3 | Loanne Duvoisin | SUI | 59:14 | 5:07:05 | 2:51:06 | 9:03:32 |
| 4 | Leana Bissig | SUI | 58:07 | 5:00:05 | 3:02:36 | 9:06:17 |
| 5 | Merle Brunnée | GER | 1:05:20 | 4:53:41 | 3:05:34 | 9:10:51 |
