Reigning IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Lucy Charles-Barclay was back in triathlon action this weekend for the first time since that Marbella triumph – and she started her season with a win.

It came at the long-standing Volcano Triathlon at Club La Santa, Lanzarote, which is a familiar training base for the Brit.

The race was over the Olympic distance (a 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run) and Charles-Barclay’s victory was extending a long line of British success in the race.

It follows a challenging start to the year which saw her focus on 1,500m freestyle swimming as she recovered following surgery in January to remove a plantaris tendon.

But recent weeks have seen her able to resume her cycling and running training and this race marks another important step in the comeback journey.

Tri great Haug her closest rival

Against a small but select field, LCB was quickest – female or male – in the swim with an 18:47 and she followed that with 1:04:13 on the bike and 37:13 on the run.

That gave her a combined time of 2:04:18 and first place in the women’s standings.

The now-retired Anne Haug (GER), a former IRONMAN World Champion like LCB, was the runner-up. She was just over four minutes back and showed she retains her impressive run speed with a 34:29 10km.

Lydia Dant (GBR), a two-time IRONMAN Lanzarote champion, rounded out the podium in third.

‘It felt so good to be back’

Writing afterwards on Instagram, a delighted Charles-Barclay said: “Today I did another 1500m swim… followed by my actual job!🤪🏊🏻‍♀️🚴🏼‍♀️🏃🏼‍♀️

“It felt so good to be back on the start line at the @clublasantaraces Volcano triathlon🥹

“There is a lot of work to be done but this was the perfect way to kick off my training camp @clublasanta & really find out what I need to work on💪🏻

“Congrats to the podium ladies @tri.anne.haug (still fast AF) and @lydia.dant 🎉”