All times are local to Kona, most recent news at the top – please refresh for updates
06:10 😬 Lange feels the nerves
Patrick Lange isn’t hiding his pre-race emotions ahead of his final Kona before retirement.
“I’m super, super nervous, but mega excited.”
With rain falling, he joked that the island “seems to be crying a little bit”.
His assessment is more serious: “It’s gonna be a really tough day, even tougher than we expected maybe.”
06:08 🏊 Riddle wants pressure
Jamie Riddle plans to push the swim – with a clear purpose.
“When there’s a bit of pressure, that opens you up to make mistakes… if I want any chance of going up against the big guys, I need them to make mistakes.”
But this isn’t about emptying the tank immediately. His approach: “Aggressive but also patient.”
06:06 🌊 Rough water? Lucy welcomes it
Lucy Charles-Barclay thinks a choppy swim could work to her advantage.
“I might not get the swim record, which would be a shame… but I think it should play into my favour if it’s a bit rougher.”
After missing the 70.3 Worlds, she describes the past month as “a perfect prep”.
“Anything can happen on this island,” she added. “Fingers crossed I can do what I’ve done in training.”
06:04 🎶 Iden’s chilled start
Gustav Iden has found a little help keeping the nerves under control.
“Normally I’m super nervous. This morning it’s been pretty chill so far. I had some Bob Marley on bringing the nerves way down.”
Relaxed before the start. Patient once the racing begins? That’s often been a winning combination for Gustav…
06:02 🧠 Blummenfelt: race smart
Kristian Blummenfelt’s answer when asked what he needs to do to win was short and revealing:
“I think it needs to be a smart race, not blowing up like two years ago.”
The favourite knows that controlling his effort could be just as important as his speed today.
06:00 🌦️ Knibb ready for anything
Taylor Knibb is taking the changing weather in her stride.
“Even on the drive in, it was like rain, no rain, rain, no rain,” she told the live broadcast.
And the prospect of a choppy swim? “It changes so fast… it’ll be what it is. So just ready for anything.”
05:55 🌧️ Sweating on the weather forecast
If you’re just joining us, welcome to our live coverage – we’re just under half an hour from the start of the men’s race at 06:20 local time.
And the first thing to say is it’s raining.
It’s also warm and the humidity is forecast to go off the charts, making a seriously tough day even more challenging.
05:50 🏃 The runners nobody wants chasing them
Asked who she wouldn’t want alongside her with 10km remaining, Lucy Charles-Barclay named Julie Derron, Kat Matthews and Laura Philipp.
On Derron, she told TRI247: “She can handle the heat… she’s such a great runner.”
Derron, meanwhile, revealed that she races the run without a watch, responding to the competition and what she feels she can sustain.
That could be particularly valuable in Kona, where forcing a target pace can carry a heavy price. The question is how close these runners can stay before their strongest discipline begins.
05:50 ⏳ A warning before we get carried away
A big lead at T2 can look decisive. Kona has repeatedly shown that it isn’t.
Gustav Iden won here in 2022 after chasing down Sam Laidlow on the marathon. Patrick Lange also came from well behind the bike leader to win in 2024.
Iden’s patience is one of his great strengths. Blummenfelt, a born racer, faces that familiar Kona question: when to respond, and when to trust his own pace?
We’ll track the gaps today – but resist handing out the trophy before the run.
05:45 😊 Findlay’s already on a winner
Paula Findlay’s move to IRONMAN has brought more than a victory at Lake Placid.
“The win was enjoying that race and enjoying the training leading up to it,” she told TRI247’s Laura Siddall, describing how the change renewed her excitement about the sport.
She also has former Kona podium finisher Heather Jackson in her corner — offering experience, emotional support and repeated reassurance that she’s ready.
Today is only Findlay’s second IRONMAN. What a place to find out how far this new chapter can take her.
05:40 🇺🇸 Could US stars change narrative?
The American men haven’t consistently turned success on home soil into results against the strongest international fields. Could today be different?
Trevor Foley and Matthew Marquardt are two particularly interesting contenders — and both shortened noticeably in the betting market during the build-up.
That doesn’t win them anything once the gun goes, of course. But it adds another reason to track their progress closely.
Here’s where they sit in our men’s power rankings.
05:35 🇫🇷 Vincent Luis: one last big day?
Vincent Luis is preparing for what he intends to be his final professional race. But retirement can wait until the finish.
“I promised my coach that I would not think about retirement until I crossed the line,” he told Laura Siddall for TRI247.
He also believes he’s in “the best running shape I’ve ever had”.
And there is a possible twist: Luis says a victory here could make him reconsider calling it a day. Quite a way to leave that decision open…
05:30 🌺 First Kona, huge ambitions
Being new to Kona doesn’t necessarily mean being here to learn quietly.
Marten Van Riel and Jonas Schomburg could help shape the men’s race from the swim onwards. Julie Derron and Paula Findlay arrive with the ability to make a major impression in the women’s race.
There’s an important distinction here: a Kona debut isn’t necessarily an IRONMAN World Championship debut — Van Riel, for example, raced in Nice last year.
Meet our ten Kona newcomers to watch.
05:25 🚴 Don’t overlook defending champion
There’s plenty of talk about Knibb’s bike power, Lucy’s swim and the runners waiting behind them. But Solveig Løvseth belongs right at the centre of this conversation.
Her victory last year came amid extraordinary late drama, yet her performance before that shouldn’t get lost in the retelling.
The defending champion has the strength to influence the bike race herself. If she reaches the marathon well placed, her rivals will know exactly how dangerous she is.
05:20 🔮 Who are you backing?
We’ve heard from athletes, experts and podcasters all week. Now it’s almost time to find out who called it right.
The betting markets made Kristian Blummenfelt and Taylor Knibb favourites, but our broadcast team predictions tell an interesting story too.
Four of the seven picked Gustav Iden to win the men’s race. The women’s winning votes were shared between Knibb, Lucy Charles-Barclay, Solveig Løvseth and Kat Matthews.
Plenty of confidence. Very little consensus.
05:15 🇳🇴 Two Norwegians, two visions of victory
We asked Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt what their perfect winning race would look like. Their answers were rather different…
Iden would happily spend most of the day chasing: “Taking the victory, the last 2k is more than enough.”
Blummenfelt’s dream? Heading down Palani with a five-minute advantage over Marten Van Riel and Jonas Schomburg, securing the Pro Series title as well.
Both told TRI247’s Laura Siddall they’d like Sam Laidlow on the podium alongside them. A reunion of 2022 — with a little disagreement over the order! 👀
05:10 🏊 Lucy’s ready to play her trump card
If there’s one athlete everyone will be watching when the women’s swim starts, it’s Lucy Charles-Barclay.
“For me, the swim is like my trump card,” she told Laura Siddall in our pre-race TRI247 interview. “So I’m trying to use it and maximise it as much as possible. But I’m not redlining.”
The aim is to create an advantage without paying for it later. Who can stay on her feet — and how much will chasing her cost them?
05:05 🇳🇴 The champions missing out
Two huges name we won’t see today are Casper Stornes, the reigning men’s IRONMAN World Champion, who was ruled out following a bike crash. And Chelsea Sodaro, the 2022 women’s winner here in Kona, who announced yesterday she is struggling with illness.
Stornes’ absence ends the prospect of another Norwegian podium sweep following last year’s race in Nice. But Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt are both here – and both have their sights firmly on victory.
It also changes the Pro Series picture. Kona is the final counting race for both men and women, with $200,000 for each Series champion. Here’s our guide to the title permutations.
05:00 🏊 🚴 🏃 Familiar roads, uncertain racing
Ahead lies a 3.8km ocean swim, 180km bike and 42.2km marathon – but those distances only tell part of the Kona story.
There’s the ride to Hawi, the exposed Queen K and the Energy Lab on the run. Then add heat, humidity, wind, nutrition and the small pacing decisions that can have enormous consequences later.
We’ve put together a full swim, bike and run course guide. Today is about getting through that course fastest while keeping everything together.
04:55 📺 Your essential race-day details
The professional men start at 06:20 here in Hawaii, with the women following ten minutes later at 06:30. That’s 17:20 and 17:30 in the UK and an hour later in central Europe. On the US East Coast it’s all under way at 12:20 EDT while on the US West Coast it’s 09:20 PDT. In Sydney and Melbourne it’s 03:20 AEDT on Sunday while in New Zealand it’s 05:20 NZDT on Sunday.
There’s free live coverage on the IRONMAN YouTube channel and via IRONMAN Pro Series while you can get a four-screen version on Smart TVs.
This page will be your perfect companion to all of that and bring you right up to speed if you can’t watch throughout – so settle in for a long and potentially dramatic day.
Looking for a particular athlete’s bib number? Here are the full men’s start list and women’s start list.
04:50 🌺 Aloha and welcome to Kona!
Two world titles. Two IRONMAN Pro Series crowns. One huge day of racing.
The professional men and women are racing on the same day in Hawaii for the first time since 2019, and we’ll be following both races right here – from the opening swim strokes to the finish on Ali’i Drive.
Can Gustav Iden regain his crown? Will Kristian Blummenfelt land the Kona and Pro Series double? And who comes out on top in a women’s field packed with potential winners? Let’s get into it…
