Here’s What You Need to Know About the 2026 IRONMAN New Zealand Race

The IRONMAN Pro Series kicks off this Saturday at the second-oldest IRONMAN qualifier in Taupo, New Zealand. Both defending IRONMAN Pro Series champions – Kat Matthews and Kristian Blummenfelt – will be on hand for this weekend’s race, but both will face some tough competition as they look to begin their title defenses in 2026. Here’s a preview of this weekend’s racing.

IRONMAN Pro Series

The third year of the IRONMAN Pro Series will feature 16 races between March and October, a US$1.7 million bonus prize pool – the winners of the series will each taking home a $200,000 bonus check. All told there will be over US$6 million in total prize money within the series, with this weekend’s race in New Zealand offering a prize purse of $125,000. The race also features four pro qualifying slots per gender for the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona.

The Pro Series includes six IRONMAN and eight IRONMAN 70.3 races, along with the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships. Here’s the full list of races:

Live Coverage

This year fans around the world will be able to tune into the live coverage on the IRONMAN YouTube channel. Coverage starts at 7:15 am local time on Saturday, March 7, which is Friday, March 6 at 1:15 pm EST and 6:15 pm GMT.

Women’s Pro Field

As mentioned, Great Britain’s Kat Matthews highlights the women’s field as she looks to continue her streak as the only woman who has ever won the IRONMAN Pro Series. She’ll face a tough field that includes defending champion, Australia’s Regan Hollioake (pictured above), last year’s fourth-place finisher in Kona, Kiwi Hanna Berry, and two-time Taupo champion, Jocelyn McCauley (USA).

After spending some time in Lanzarote, Matthews travelled to Noosa, Australia to prepare for this weekend’s race. While the focus of the season will be Kona, Matthews said she is “deeply motivated to retain the Pro Series title.”

“The training block in Noosa has gone exactly to plan, super smooth and with the added bonus of great company and really relaxed fun atmosphere,” Matthews said. “Coming over to Oceania well ahead of IRONMAN New Zealand allows me to feel totally in-line with the time zone shift. I often find big travel hits my hormonal stability and the sleep disturbance coincides with my mood, gut health and general tolerance for positivity! It is also nice to enjoy the heat of Australia after a pretty miserable [weather] UK winter.”

After being forced out of the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella due to a calf injury, Matthews has taken more control over her training, and has added some additional work in hopes of avoiding similar issues this year.

“My husband Mark and I are now taking total ownership over all my training programs, and we are both loving the flexibility of this so far,” Matthews continued. “We are communicating really well. Loosely I’d say in Jan and Feb I am doing less volume to last year and loading the threshold zone more across the bike and run. We will, of course, periodize through the year towards the primary focus of the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona. Some extra little things I have added in are surrounding muscular health; some toe and foot exercises and single leg weighted loading.”

Like Matthews, the defending champ is, first and foremost, focused on Kona, so the first priority is to nail one of the four qualifying slots this weekend.

“All roads lead to Kona so that is my main priority,” Hollioake said. “It would be ideal to grab a world championship slot at the first race of the season, which to do so would have to be a solid result in itself. It would be excellent to start the year off with some solid Pro Series points, too. A solid result early on would be a big advantage and lead to some flexibility later in the year for me. Lots to fight for come race day.”

Berry would dearly love to take another IRONMAN New Zealand title this weekend in front of the home-town crowd. (She’s from nearby Tauranga.) After finishing fourth in the Pro Series in 2024 and ninth last year, Berry was thrilled that the Taupo race is part of the series after having to skip the event for a couple of years.

The day promises to feature some “cat-and-mouse” racing with fast swimmers like Rebecca Clarke (NZL), Lotte Wilms (NLD) and Fenella Langridge (GBR) looking to break clear of the pre-race favourites, while running speedsters including Tamara Jewett (CAN) and Danielle Lewis (USA) will look to move to the front during the final leg of the race.

Here’s the pro women’s start list:

All Eyes On Blummenfelt

As with Matthews, Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt is looking to defend his IRONMAN Pro Series title with a win. As we learned during our conversation with Blummenfelt and his countrymen Gustav Iden and Casper Stornes last month, Blummenfelt heads from Taupo to the next race in the pro series, IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong, with he and the rest of the Norwegian crew heading to Texas in April, where Blummenfelt hopes to defend his title. All that early season racing will hopefully put Blummenfelt in a good position to defend the pro series title despite his heading to Challenge Roth in early July.

“Hopefully I can cross out one solid IRONMAN already in early March, which gives me more space for planning and combining the Pro Series with hopefully racing better in the World Championship in comparison to what I did last year,” said Blummenfelt. “I would like to show to myself that I’m riding better over the 180km distance early in the season compared to what I did last year. There are some really strong cyclists turning up here, especially Rasmus Svenningsson, and I’m interested to see how I compare to him, and how my run legs will be off the bike. Pierre Le Corre is a dark horse for the run. He smashed me on the run last time we raced together in Paris 2024, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do. But, of course, I’m going for the win and the 5,000 points that comes with it.”

Among that list of strong cyclists is defending champion and course-record holder (7:45:47) Mike Phillips (NZL), who is in the hunt for a third title in Taupo. He’s all too aware of how strong the field is, though, and with Blummenfelt in the mix, realizes his course record could be in jeopardy on Saturday.

“I started the season really well last year, but ended up with a number of setbacks and broken bones which resulted in having to constantly pivot,” Phillips said. “I hope to start the year strongly again and then pursue the IRONMAN Pro Series with eyes back on Kona.”

“I think it will take a world-class performance to win and there are a number of guys capable of that,” Phillips continued. “The bike course looks slightly tougher, but with a hill removed from the run, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the record under pressure.”

Taupo’s own Kyle Smith is back to race in his hometown in what will be his first full-distance race since dropping out in Kona in 2022. Smith took third in his full-distance debut at IRONMAN New Zealand in 2021, but is returning after a tough 2025.

“Training is going really well since my shoulder break, and I feel like I’m in good shape,” Smith said. “So I’m excited to see how it goes. I’m coming back to IRONMAN because I feel like Kona is the big goal this season and I am really excited by the distance and I’m on a journey of discovery with my return to IRONMAN – especially kicking it off here in Taupo. It’s a place that is super special to me and it’s such an honour to race at home and bring some amazing athletes here to Taupo to race. I’m keen to build throughout this year, start here and build towards the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship [in Nice, France] and IRONMAN World Championship in Kona with one eye looking at the Pro Series.”

As Blummenfelt suggested, Swede Rasmus Svenningsson will be one to watch on the bike, while American Trevor Foley looks to return to the top of an IRONMAN podium (he won Lake Placid in 2024) with one of his signature fast run splits. And, as Blummenfelt suggested, Le Corre will be a wildcard in the event as he takes on his first full-distance race. There are a few other podium contenders on the start list, too, including Kiwi Jack Moody (fresh off a win at Challenge Wanaka) and Germany’s Frederic Funk.

Here’s the full pro men’s start list:

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