Defending Champions Knibb, Bogen Headline 70.3 Worlds Start Lists
The final two races of the 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series are nearly upon us, with 70.3 Western Australia this weekend, followed by the 70.3 World Championships two weeks later. And now we have the official word on who will be taking to the starting line in a couple of weeks time to battle for the 70.3 world title — and, in some cases, desperate for key points in the overall Pro Series standings.
Defending champions Taylor Knibb and Rico Bogen will indeed be taking to the streets of Taupo to try and repeat. But they will have a lot of hefty company in the final race of the year, which will determine both the individual championship and the season-long points race.
Women’s Field
Knibb will look to take her third 70.3 World Championship — and there’s no reason to deny her favored status given her dominant 2024 campaign across race series and formats. She’s unbeaten in middle distance this year.
Joining her on the podium last year were Kat Matthews and Imogen Simmonds, and both will be vying to deny Knibb the title. Matthews will also look to lock up the Pro Series title; she sits 257 points back of current leader Jackie Hering, but Matthews has an open score available to her; any decent performance should be enough to have her take down that title. This will be Matthews’ tenth race of the season; she’s been on the podium seven out of nine times this year.
Ashleigh Gentle will look to avenge her loss to Knibb at the PTO Final in Dubai. Gentle is one of the best middle distance athletes in the world, and she is nearly unbeatable in Pacific region races. But Ellie Salthouse is another one to watch — the eighteen time 70.3 champion has taken five podiums (including three wins) this season.
Olympic silver medalist Julie Derron will attempt to spoil the party of the middle distance specialists. In her few races at this distance, she has shown potential, including a victory at 70.3 Switzerland.
The full field is below:
| Bib | First Name | Last Name | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taylor | Knibb | USA |
| 2 | Kat | Matthews | GBR |
| 3 | Imogen | Simmonds | CHE |
| 4 | Paula | Findlay | CAN |
| 6 | Ashleigh | Gentle | AUS |
| 7 | Ellie | Salthouse | AUS |
| 9 | Julie | Derron | CHE |
| 10 | Jackie | Hering | USA |
| 11 | Maja | Stage Nielsen | DNK |
| 12 | Danielle | Lewis | USA |
| 14 | Alice | Alberts | USA |
| 15 | Lotte | Wilms | NLD |
| 16 | Hannah | Berry | NZL |
| 17 | Els | Visser | NLD |
| 18 | Caroline | Pohle | DEU |
| 19 | Solveig | Lovseth | NOR |
| 20 | Laura | Madsen | DNK |
| 21 | Elizabeth | Bravo | ECU |
| 22 | Giorgia | Priarone | ITA |
| 23 | Marlene | De Boer | NLD |
| 24 | Daniela | Kleiser | DEU |
| 25 | Marta | Sanchez | ESP |
| 26 | Rebecca | Clarke | NZL |
| 27 | Sara | Perez Sala | ESP |
| 28 | Diede | Diederiks | NLD |
| 29 | Tamara | Jewett | CAN |
| 30 | Valerie | Barthelemy | BEL |
| 31 | Lucy | Buckingham | GBR |
| 32 | Fiona | Moriarty | IRL |
| 33 | Hannah | Knighton | NZL |
| 34 | Hanne | De Vet | BEL |
| 35 | Cecilia | Perez | MEX |
| 38 | Grace | Thek | AUS |
| 39 | Julie | Iemmolo | FRA |
| 40 | Nikki | Bartlett | GBR |
| 43 | Sif | Bendix Madsen | DNK |
| 44 | Luisa | Iogna Prat | ITA |
| 45 | Marta | Lagownik | POL |
| 46 | Grace | Alexander | USA |
| 47 | Jodie | Stimpson | GBR |
| 48 | Lizzie | Rayner | GBR |
| 49 | Lisa | Becharas | USA |
| 50 | Gabrielle | Lumkes | USA |
| 51 | Anna | Bergsten | SWE |
| 52 | Lena | Meißner | DEU |
| 53 | Emilie | Morier | FRA |
| 54 | Kristen | Marchant | CAN |
| 55 | Barbara | Riveros | CHL |
| 56 | Amy | Cymerman | USA |
| 59 | Caroline | Shannon | USA |
| 60 | Franziska | Hofmann | DEU |
| 61 | Eloise | Du Luart | FRA |
| 62 | Ana Maria | Torres | ECU |
Men’s Field
Defending champion Bogen has been unable to claim a win following his shock world championship last year. Results have been mixed across racing various race series’ middle distance events. His best finish, though, was second at T100 Dubai; perhaps he’s peaking at just the right time to defend his title.
Two Olympians will look to derail Bogen’s title defense: silver medalist Hayden Wilde and bronze medalist Léo Bergère. Of the two, Bergère has the more decorated history at this distance, having won every IRONMAN 70.3 race he’s started. Wilde, though, will be racing on home turf, and he’s had success here, finishing third in 70.3 Taupō in 2019.
Speaking of those with prior success in Taupō, there’s Kyle Smith. Smith won this race over Wilde in 2019. He won it again in 2023. For Smith, like Wilde, this is a hometown race.
Notably absent from the list? Lionel Sanders. Sanders, who was disqualified from last year’s 70.3 World Championship, suffered a bike crash in training and has opted to put an end to his 2024 campaign.
The full start list:
| Bib | First Name | Last Name | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rico | Bogen | DEU |
| 3 | Mathis | Margirier | FRA |
| 4 | Keulen | Youri | NLD |
| 5 | Marc | Dubrick | USA |
| 6 | Josh | Amberger | AUS |
| 8 | Hayden | Wilde | NZL |
| 9 | Leo | Bergere | FRA |
| 11 | Matt | Hanson | USA |
| 12 | Matthew | Marquardt | USA |
| 14 | Gregory | Barnaby | ITA |
| 15 | Kristian | Hogenhaug | DNK |
| 16 | Kyle | Smith | NZL |
| 18 | Casper | Stornes | NOR |
| 19 | Braden | Currie | NZL |
| 20 | Jason | West | USA |
| 21 | Ruben | Zepuntke | DEU |
| 23 | Antony | Costes | FRA |
| 24 | Jelle | Geens | BEL |
| 25 | Mitch | Kibby | AUS |
| 26 | Ari | Klau | USA |
| 27 | Nick | Thompson | AUS |
| 28 | Caleb | Noble | AUS |
| 29 | Sam | Osborne | NZL |
| 30 | Harry | Palmer | GBR |
| 31 | Federico | Scarabino | URY |
| 32 | Henri | Schoeman | ZAF |
| 33 | Armando | Matute | ECU |
| 34 | Wilhelm | Hirsch | DEU |
| 35 | Colin | Szuch | USA |
| 36 | Kacper | Stepniak | POL |
| 38 | Mike | Phillips | NZL |
| 39 | Strahinja | Trakic | SRB |
| 41 | Ben | Hamilton | NZL |
| 42 | Thomas | Davis | GBR |
| 43 | Hunter | Lussi | USA |
| 44 | Eduardo | Perez Sandi | MEX |
| 45 | Justus | Nieschlag | DEU |
| 46 | Max | Stapley | GBR |
| 47 | Jack | Moody | NZL |
| 48 | Thomas | Bishop | GBR |
| 49 | Nicholas | Quenet | ZAF |
| 50 | Kurt | McDonald | AUS |
| 52 | Johannes | Vogel | DEU |
| 53 | Michael | Arishita | USA |
| 54 | Jannik | Schaufler | DEU |
| 55 | Gregory | Harper | USA |
| 56 | Dieter | Comhair | BEL |
| 58 | Joao | Ferreira | PRT |
| 59 | Calvin | Amos | AUS |
| 60 | Nicholas | Free | AUS |
| 61 | Marty | Andrie | USA |
| 62 | Martin | Ulloa | CHL |
| 63 | Christoph | Mattner | DEU |
| 64 | Matthew | Ralphs | ZAF |
Can you change the title to something more specific like “startlist - Ironman70.3 Worlds”
Versus the nebulous title (because someone asking about wave starts, or pavement quality, or accommodations or equipment is talking about a different topic?
And start a new thread for other topics related to worlds (like race day thread etc)
@Ajax_Bay thanks for adding startlist to the title. I wonder if Derron can get closer to Knibb. Knibb has more time on the bike and Derron in theory has more time on the run, but that’s if she’s actually running faster than Knibb.
What do you think Wilde can do ?
Bogen seems to be coming into great form based on T100 Dubai
I think that the Dubai bike course worked in Julie’s favor due to it’s technical nature but even with that being the case, Julie had to work her butt off to come in off the bike in the same zip code as Taylor. At that point, the bill for the uber hard effort on the swim plus bike had to be paid by both Ash and Julie as Taylor was able to cruise it in with a reasonable even effort . As Taylor so often says “we will see”.
Stacked fields, both women and men. Really only missing LCB on the women’s side, and MVR on the men’s.
Some to watch, at least I’ll be interested in them (some obvious, some maybe less):
Knibb, Gentle, Derron rivalry keeps going.
What can Solveigh Lovseth do against these three at this distance? Same for Lena Meissner.
Can Elizabeth Bravo bike well enough to be in contention for a top 5?
Very keen to see what Caroline Pohle does here too.
Are slightly older ex-ITUers Jodie Stimpson and Valerie Barthelemy a chance at a good result?
Bogen and Margirier will most likely have to bike the house down, they probably don’t want to make it a running race with Wilde, Geens, Bergere.
Kyle Smith might want to form an alliance with Bogen and Margirier too.
Some great wildcards coming from ITU racing: already mentioned Wilde, Geens and Bergere, but also Casper Stornes, Max Stapley, Henri Schoeman (to push the swim), Tom Bishop, Joao Ferreira (the bike likely to be his undoing), Justus Nieschlag and Ari Klau (just kidding).
Incredible start list. Deepest field of the year, hopefully this leads to some great racing to watch.
I think Hayden Wilde is winning this with over a minute to spare.
Wilde
Smith
Bergere
Knibb
Deron
Findlay
It feels like Taylor took her time in T1 and let a few others get ahead and overbike on purpose and took her time while they buried themselves and built up lactate and once the pass was made they may have done their damage to themselves with no chance of bouncing back in Dubai heat to put down the runs they are capable of. Of course we can say in Lahti cool she did the same and plenty of hard charging runners had a chance but they never even got close!!!
Heh, I’d like to believe Taylor was that tactical. I think it’s likely she’s just ham fisted when it comes to transitions but wasn’t too bothered by it as she’d catch them anyway.
It’s great that 70.3 Worlds is coming after the T100 “Grand Final” and it has much of the same top racers in the Women’s field. I’m way more excited about this race and course to see how they all perform. Paula Findlay will hopefully be fit to race as she should be more in contention as well given the course.
I wouldn’t count Stornes and Geens out. Bogen, Margirier and Keulen might have something to say too if they have their day
I suspect Knibb will get a greater gap (than Dubai) out of T2 even with a wetsuit swim.
Buckingham (Hall) will lead out the swim, as she did in London (not that one; in the Serpentine) and neither Gentle nor Derron (nor Matthews fwiw) will be ahead of her as she rockets from the field and up Rifle Range Road. Plenty of ‘scenery’ and minimal technical stuff to slow Knibb down.
Run is two miles longer. Derron gained 3 minutes on Knibb running round the puncheur LLV golf course track but only 4 seconds a mile in Dubai.
And we’ll see sensible temperatures in 18 days so Gentle’s apparent ‘hot/humid’ advantage will not be in play.
https://www.ironman.com/im703-taupo-course
@cyclenutnz Taupo 70.3 WC Ride · Ride with GPS
Knibb typically puts on socks in T1 (she did in Dubai) hence why her T1 is much slower than everyone else. Don’t get me wrong, she could probably work on a few things to get faster but its putting the socks on that causes the biggest delta.
Perez Sala swam with no swim skin in Dubai, but comparing like with like, pulling the socks on is part of the difference but Gentle only lost 6 seconds on her in T2, and put socks on. I shall not review )to be sure) but I recall Derron ran without socks, gaining 11 secs on Gentle and a few more on Knibb.
I think Knibb might have spent time getting ice loaded, both transitions.
Same T1/T2 delta pattern (Knibb v Derron) in Las Vegas.
https://stats.protriathletes.org/race/dubai-t100/2024/results
That’s a fair point but when she’s not putting on socks in ITU she’s still among the slowest at transitions.
Here’s the first Tri247 preview.
Knibb ftw; Matthews for the IM Pro Series $200k; Derron second favourite for the day. See also Simmonds (bit below par in Dubai), Gentle (rather underplayed, I thought; I wonder how her Dubai wobbles will affect her), Findlay, Salthouse also ran (but has won Eighteen 70.3s!).
ok but in fairness keulen seems to be on the sam long early season peak trainings plan
i cant rember when was his last top race was there anything after sinagpore which he won.