IONMAN Pro Series Kicks Off This Weekend. What Can We Learn From the Start Lists
Jelle Geens highlights the IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong field. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
The IRONMAN Pro Series kicks off this weekend with IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong (Mar. 23), then heads to South Africa for the IRONMAN South Africa African Championship (try saying that five times in a hurry) on Mar. 30. As you can see from the list of races below, the Pro Series begins with three races on three different continents over the first three weeks, with IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside starting things off in North America on April. 5. (The entry list for that race isn’t available yet, so we’ll start with the first two.)
2025 IRONMAN Pro Series Schedule
Date Event Location Points
Mar. 23 IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong Geelong, Victoria, Australia 2,500
Mar. 30 ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth, South Africa 5,000
Apr. 5 Athletic Brewing IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside Oceanside, California, USA 2,500
Apr. 26 Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Texas North American Championship The Woodlands, Texas, USA 5,000
May 4 IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo Jesolo, Venice, Italy 2,500
May 10 Intermountain Health IRONMAN 70.3 St. George North American Championship St. George, Utah, USA 2,500
May 18 IRONMAN 70.3 Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, France 2,500
Jun. 1 IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship (F Pro) Hamburg, Germany 5,000
Jun. 8 IRONMAN 70.3 Eagleman Cambridge, Maryland, USA 2,500
Jun. 15 Cairns Airport IRONMAN Cairns Cairns, Queensland, Australia 5,000
Jun. 29 Mainova IRONMAN Frankfurt European Championship (M Pro) Frankfurt, Germany 5,000
Jul. 13 IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom 2,500
Jul. 20 Athletic Brewing IRONMAN Lake Placid Lake Placid, New York, USA 5,000
Aug. 31 IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun Zell am See, Austria 2,500
Sept. 14 IRONMAN World Championship – Men’s Race Nice, France 6,000
Oct. 11 IRONMAN World Championship – Women’s Race Kona, Hawai`i, USA 6,000
Nov. 8-9 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Marbella, Spain 3,000
Considering the Pro Series runs through to Nov. 8/9 with the IRONMAN 70.3 Championship in Marbella, Spain, there’s lots of time for athletes to build into the season, so these first two races certainly won’t make or break an athletes chances of taking the overall title. So what can we glean from the start lists?
Oceania-based Athletes Chance to Shine in Geelong
Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
The Victoria state government and the City of Greater Geelong are supporting (read, picking up the tab) to add 70.3 Geelong to the Pro Series. That’s great news for athletes from Australia and New Zealand, who are used to having to travel to Europe or North America to compete at major, broadcasted events. Headlining the field (click here to see the full pro list) is IRONMAN 70.3 world champion Jelle Geens – the Belgian is now living in Australia.
“I’m very excited to start the year again and start at home in Australia,” Geens told the folks at IRONMAN. “I’ve never actually been outside of driving distance of here on the Gold Coast, so it will be cool to get to go to Melbourne and arrive there and then head to Geelong.”
“I’m eager to start the season and see where I’m at,” Geens continued. “I feel like I’m in a good place, but it will be good to see where I’m at in an actual race and how I stack up against some of the best guys in the world. I’m also excited to see also how Matt Hauser is doing, he’s super good at short course and making the step up for this race in Geelong so it will be exciting to see how he will compete and I just love racing, love competing against all these guys and try to win the race, that’s my goal. I come in with a mark on my back winning the Taupō race, but in the end not much has changed, I still just want to enjoy racing and try to win the race of course.”
Grace Thek on the run at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
With T100 Singapore two weeks after the Geelong race, it makes sense that Geens, who has signed a T100 contract with the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) will head to Singapore after the race in Geelong. The same goes for Aussie Grace Thek and New Zealand’s Hannah Berry, who headline the women’s field in Geelong and have also signed T100 contracts.
Geens is right to pick out two-time Australian Olympian Matt Hauser as one to watch. Hauser was seventh in Paris last year and the runner-up at the WTCS Grand Final. He appears to have heaps of potential over the 70.3 distance. Another Aussie Olympian (Tokyo), Jake Birtwhistle, will look to continue his long-distance career after his win at 70.3 Tasmania in 2023, along with a runner-up finish at 70.3 Melbourne and fifth at IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia last year. On the women’s side, Hauser’s Paris teammate Natalie Van Coevorden continues her move to middle-distance racing (she finished fourth at 70.3 Sunshine Coast and Bahrain last year, and took the win at the Husky Ultimate half-distance race in February) and is another athlete to watch for. Ditto for another Aussie WTCS racer, Charlotte McShy finished fourth in the PRO Series last year is really the only one of the T100-contracted athletes racing in Geelong with a lot of IRONMAN racing under her belt. (Geens has only raced a few 70.3s and Thek will be making her long-distance debut in Roth in July.) So, of those three, Berry would be the only one that might be in the hunt for Pro Series points, but more likely she’ll be looking to nail her spot for the 70.3 worlds in Marbella in NovZealand’s Braden Currie struggles to cool down on the run in Kona last year. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
There are two men in the field in Geelong who will definitely have their eyes on top finishes in the Pro Series this year – New Zealand’s Braden Currie and Australian super-cyclist/ pro triathlete Cameron Wurf. Currie couldn’t buy a break last year and still managed ninth in the pro series, while Wurf is reportedly planning to compete in every single pro series event this year. (OK, not quite every race – IRONMAN Hamburg is a women’s
arta Sanchez exits the water in Taupo. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
The IRONMAN Pro Series goal appears to be on the minds of many of the folks signed up for IRONMAN South Africa. It’s hard to imagine how defending champion, Spain’s Marta Sanchez, only finished 19th in the Pro Series last year. In addition to her win in Nelson Mandela Bay, she won IRONMAN Barcelona, IRONMAN 70.3 Pucon, IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia and finished sixth at the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice. Unfortunately, though, she didn’t get any points for the win in Barcelona as it wasn’t part of the Pro Series.
Maja Stage Nielsen competes at IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
Denmark’s Maja Stage Nielsen didn’t feel like she had a great season in 2024 (the highlight was her runner-up finish in Hamburg), but still managed fifth in the Pro Series standings. While Stage Nielsen is known as a consistent competitor who can race a lot, her challenge in 2025 will be that she’s racing at IRONMAN Lanzarote in May, which isn’t part of the Pro Series, which means she’ll have to compete at four full-distance IRONMAN races this year to really compete for a top-finish in the standings.
Another woman with tons of potential for a top-finish in the Pro Series is Els Visser, who likely would have finished higher than seventh in the final standings had she not been forced out of the world championship in Nice due to a stress fracture. Visser has signed a T100 contract, though, so it will be interesting to see how she juggles the T100 and IRONMAN racing – she is registered to compete in Singapore the week after the race in South Africa. She might just be looking at South Africa as a way to nail her Kona slot, but a solid start in South Africa would possibly put her on a “Kat Matthews go after both” trajectory. Visser is renowned for being able to race a lot, and consistently, so it’s
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