Defending Champions return as pro start list revealed for IM 70.3 World Championship Taupo

A deep and talented field of more than 110 female and male professional triathletes will line up in Taupō, New Zealand next month to contest for the IM 70.3 World Championship title. The women will race on Saturday 14 December and the men a day later on Sunday 15 December, with a total professional prize purse of $500,000 USD up for grabs. Over 6,000 age-group athletes will join the professionals as they look to be crowned world champion in their respective age-group divisions.

The professional races in Taupō are set to sizzle as returning champions go head-to-head with Olympic medalists and middle-distance specialists for the coveted title of IM 70.3 World Champion, with the winner taking home $75,000 USD.

Women’s Professional Race
Two-time IM 70.3 World Champion Taylor Knibb (USA) will line up in Taupō as the hot favourite to earn a hattrick of titles. Arguably one of the best triathletes in the world right now, Knibb is unbeaten in every middle-distance race she lined up for in 2024. The American will race her fourth IM 70.3 World Championship triathlon, with two wins and a third place already to her name.

Kat Matthews (GBR) and Imogen Simmonds (CHE) joined Knibb on the 2023 podium and will both be on the start line in Taupō hoping to go at least one better than last year. Matthews has had an incredibly successful year of racing, highlighted by finishing as runner-up at the Ironman World Championship triathlon in Nice, France in September. Matthews currently sits second in the IM Pro Series standings and needs to overturn a 257-point deficit to leader Jackie Hering (USA). Hering has completed her full complement of Ironman Pro Series races so can only swap out a lower scoring race, while Matthews still has one IM 70.3 score to add to her total, meaning the British athlete will put it all on the line in Taupō in pursuit of two titles and a big pay day. Simmonds meanwhile has had a year of mixed results but having finished third twice at the IM 70.3 World Championship, she is never one to count out on the biggest stage.

2024 Olympic silver medalist Julie Derron (CHE) has completed three IM 70.3 triathlons, finishing on the podium each time including victory at the IM 70.3 Switzerland Rapperswil-Jona triathlon this year. Derron will be one to watch in Taupō and will look to follow in the footsteps of her recently retired compatriot Daniela Ryf, a five-time Ironman 70.3 World Champion.

Australian duo Ashleigh Gentle and Ellie Salthouse and Canada’s Paula Findlay are three of the best middle-distance specialists in the world and will provide fierce competition to the likes of Knibb, Matthews, Simmonds and Derron. Gentle is a four-time IM 70.3 champion and two-time Olympian, while Salthouse is an 18-time IM 70.3 champion with victories in 2024 including the IRONMAN 70.3 Boulder and IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne triathlons. Like Salthouse in Boulder, Findlay has also won IM Pro Series races, her two victories coming at the Ironman 70.3 North American Championship St. George triathlon and the IM 70.3 Mont-Tremblant triathlon. Findlay has also tasted success at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship race, finishing as runner-up in 2022.

With the IM 70.3 World Championship triathlon serving as the last opportunity to score points in the IM Pro Series, eight out of the top 10 women, including all of the top six in the series standings will line up in Taupō. Hering, Maja Stage Nielsen (DNK), Danielle Lewis (USA), and Alice Alberts (USA), who sit first, third, fourth, and fifth respectively in the standings, have all completed their full complement of IM Pro Series races and will be therefore hoping to swap out their lowest score for a higher one earned in Taupō. Meanwhile, Lotte Wilms (NLD) and home-favourite Hannah Berry (NZL), sixth and eighth respectively, still have two IM 70.3 scores apiece to add to their overall totals, meaning strong scores at this weekend’s IM 70.3 Western Australia Asia-Pacific Championship triathlon, and then again Taupō are vital if they are to elevate to podium positions in the end-of-year IM Pro Series standings.

Men’s Professional Race
Defending champion Rico Bogen (DEU) will line up for his second IM 70.3 World Championship triathlon in just his third year as a professional triathlete. Bogen won the prestigious title on debut last year as a 23-year-old and will be hoping to make it back-to-back victories in Taupō.

Two of Bogen’s closest challengers will likely come in the shape of Taupō-born Hayden Wilde (NZL), the 2024 Olympic silver and 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, and Léo Bergère (FRA), the 2024 Olympic bronze medalist. Both men are relatively new to Ironman 70.3 racing yet have already achieved incredible successes, with Wilde securing a runaway victory at the IM 70.3 Melbourne triathlon last year, rubber-stamping his ticket to the 2024 IM 70.3 World Championship triathlon in his homeland. Wilde is also no stranger to racing in Taupō after finishing third at the Ironman 70.3 Taupō triathlon in 2019. Bergère, who has won every IM 70.3 triathlon he started, will be hoping to continue his winning streak and get revenge on his Kiwi rival who pipped him to the post at the Paris Olympic Games. Fellow Paris 2024 Olympic Games representative Jelle Geens (BEL) will also be one to watch in the men’s race.

Those supporting from the sidelines in Taupō will have two local heroes to cheer for, with Kyle Smith (NZL), who, like Wilde, was also born in the host town of the 2024 IM 70.3 World Championship triathlon. Smith knows what it takes to win in Taupō, having claimed the 2023 and 2019 IM 70.3 Taupō titles.

Four out of the top 10 in the men’s Ironman Pro Series standings will be racing in Taupō. Matt Hanson (USA) currently sits in second place but having completed his full complement of scoring races can only add a maximum of 691 points in Taupō and needs 770 to overturn series leader Patrick Lange (DEU). Lange, who will not be racing in Taupō, concluded his highly successful season of racing at the VinFast IM World Championship triathlon in Kona, Hawaii where he claimed his third IM World Championship title and moved into first place of the Ironman Pro Series standings. Matthew Marquardt (USA), Gregory Barnaby (ITA), and Kristian Høgenhaug (DNK), fourth, fifth, and sixth in the standings respectively, all still have one IM 70.3 score to add to their totals, with Barnaby and Høgenhaug also opting to race Ironman 70.3 Western Australia to bolster their chances of being crowned the inaugural IM Pro Series champion.

Other top contenders in the IM 70.3 World Championship men’s race are 2023 top finishers Mathis Margirier (FRA) and Youri Keulen (NLD). Margirier finished fourth in Lahti last year, while Keulen finished sixth.

Below are the professional start lists (subject to change):