The capital of the Basque Country played host to the eleventh stop and fourth full distance IRONMAN triathlon in the IRONMAN Pro Series™ today with IRONMAN® Vitoria-Gasteiz triathlon.
With his home crowd cheering him on, Antonio Benito López of Spain took his first ever IRONMAN triathlon win, as well as 5,000 IRONMAN Pro Series points and $18,000 in prize money. Benito López who had the fifth fastest bike split of the day, put in a dominant performance on the run, picking off Matthias Petersen (DNK), Kristian Høgenhaug (DNK), and Robert Kallin (SWE) to eventually take the tape with a course best time of 7:36:38. Behind him, an exciting battle unfolded on the run between David McNamee (GBR), Kristian Høgenhaug (DNK), Bradley Weiss (ZAF) and Cameron Wurf (AUS). McNamee broke away around the 32k mark to take second place, while Wurf chased down both Weiss and Høgenhaug to complete the podium.
Robert Kallin set a bike course best time for an IRONMAN triathlon, completing the course in a blazing 3:54:33, but faded on the run to eventually finish 8th.
Sam Laidlow, the current IRONMAN World Champion and race favourite, was disqualified for failing to serve a drafting penalty but continued on to complete the race and exercise his right to appeal after his finish. Following the appeal with the onsite competition jury, his disqualification was upheld.
In the women’s professional race, Kat Matthews (GBR) took her second IRONMAN Pro Series victory, and jumps up to fourth place in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings. Matthews put in a consistent performance across all three disciplines, clocking the second fastest swim and bike splits of the day, and then dominated the run course, clocking a 2.54.40 marathon for the fastest run of the day. Els Visser (NLD) finished in second place, just over 8 minutes behind Matthews, and Ruth Astle (GBR) completed the podium 13:44 minutes after Matthews.
Matthews commented: "I had a bad swim, I felt disconnected, but I felt like I was having fun on the bike. My peers Els [Visser] and Daniela Bleymehl were taking turns, and I just thought it was so fair, so honest, a great course. And the run, it was just a ‘get through it’ kind of day...the course is crazy, and I didn't know where I was, I almost didn't look at my watch, and I was just thinking about seeing the crowd".
"I came here to get the 5,000 points for the Pro Series, that was my only goal", she added.
Benito López said: "the truth is that I came to get the slot for [VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in] Kona, and that meant getting a podium. As the run was progressing, I was seeing myself at the front, even if you are used to the run, it is always long ... and in the end supper happy because I have been able to win.”
Top Five Male Professional Results
| Place |
Name (Country) |
Swim |
Bike |
Run |
Total Time |
Pro Series Points |
Event Prize Money |
| 1 |
Antonio Benito López (ESP) |
46:30 |
4:07:53 |
2:37:57 |
7:36:38 |
5000 |
$18,000 |
| 2 |
David McNamee (GBR) |
46:29 |
4:08:40 |
2:42:03 |
7:41:20 |
4719 |
$11,500 |
| 3 |
Cameron Wurf (AUS) |
50:29 |
4:03:15 |
2:44:41 |
7:43:16 |
4603 |
$9,000 |
| 4 |
Bradley Weiss (ZAF) |
47:37 |
4:07:55 |
2:45:11 |
7:43:51 |
4568 |
$6,000 |
| 5 |
Kristian Høgenhaug (DNK) |
47:36 |
3:59:49 |
2:53:23 |
7:44:36 |
4523 |
$5,000 |
Top Five Female Professional Results
| Place |
Name (Country) |
Swim |
Bike |
Run |
Total Time |
Pro Series Points |
Event Prize Money |
| 1 |
Kat Matthews (GBR) |
55:07 |
4:30:07 |
2:54:40 |
8:24:23 |
5000 |
$18,000 |
| 2 |
Els Visser (NLD) |
55:08 |
4:31:04 |
3:01:41 |
8:32:29 |
4514 |
$11,500 |
| 3 |
Ruth Astle (GBR) |
55:11 |
4:29:54 |
3:08:24 |
8:38:07 |
4176 |
$9,000 |
| 4 |
Daniela Bleymehl (DEU) |
55:13 |
4:30:41 |
3:10:30 |
8:41:12 |
3991 |
$6,000 |
| 5 |
Simone Mitchell (GBR) |
55:09 |
4:44:21 |
2:56:35 |
8:41:39 |
3964 |
$5,000 |
The 2024 IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz triathlon saw approximately 80 of the world’s top professional triathletes compete for a piece of the USD $125,000 total event pro prize purse, and IRONMAN Pro Series points, as well as three female professional and three male professional qualifying slots to the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship, the women’s race taking place in Nice, France on Sept. 22, and the men’s race taking place in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i on Oct. 26
News and Notes
- Antonio Benito Lopez’s victory marked his first ever IRONMAN triathlon win. His time of 7:36:38 also crushed the current IRONMAN Vitoria course best of 7:52:50, which was set by Nicholas Kastelein (AUS) in 2022. Benito López also had the fastest run split of the day, clocking a 2:37:57 marathon, beating the run course best of 02:43:28, also set by Kestelain 2022.
- Kat Matthews’ time of 8:24:23 was also an IRONMAN Vitoria course best, beating Gurutze Frades’ (ESP) time of 8:46:18, set last year.
- Robert Kallin (SWE) set a bike course best time for an IRONMAN triathlon, completing the course in a blazing 3:54:33, breaking Magnus Ditlev’s (DNK) time of 3:57:45, which he set at IRONMAN Florida last year.
- In her first race back since the VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in October, Ruth Astle took the bike course record, previously held by Els Visser (4:41:17, 2023) with an impressive split of 4:29:54
- Richard Varga (SVK) had the fastest swim of the day in 45:23, breaking the swim course record of 46:45, set by Josh Amberger (AUS) in 2019. In the women’s professional race, Stephanie Clutterbuck (GBR) was first out of the water in a time of 50:40, narrowly missing her own course record of 49:35 which she set last year as an age-grouper.
- In the men’s Pro Series standings, Stenn Goerstouwers (BEL) causes the biggest upset of the day, jumping 15 places to sit in 2nd place. Robert Kallin also soars up by 25 places, putting him in sixth place in the standings.
- In the women’s Pro Series standings, Daniela Bleymehl (DEU) moves up 10 places to third, while Kat Matthews also enters the top five at number four. Els Visser also enters the top 10.
Full results for the IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz triathlon can be found at www.ironman.com/im-vitoria-results. For additional event information, please visit www.ironman.com/im-vitoria.
IRONMAN Pro Series Standings
The IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based triathlon race series with professional triathletes being able to earn points at 20 select races in 19 locations globally. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the IRONMAN Pro Series ushers in a new era of IRONMAN racing where Every Second Matters™ with every second behind the race winner equating to a point earned or lost. For any athlete, only their top five event results count towards their overall Pro Series points and standing, of which a maximum of three IRONMAN results can be counted. How it works can be found here.
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Female (After 11 Events)
| Rank |
Name (Country) |
Total IRONMAN Pro Series Points (Max Top 5 events) |
Total Eligible Races Scored |
IRONMAN Races Scored |
IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored |
| 1 |
Maja Stage Nielsen (DEN) |
11,025 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
| 2 |
Kylie Simpson (AUS) |
10,900 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
| 3 |
Daniela Bleymehl (DEU) |
10,460 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
| 4 |
Kat Matthews (GBR) |
10,000 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
| 5 |
Fenella Langridge (GBR) |
9,971 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Male (After 11 Events)
| Rank |
Name (Country) |
Total IRONMAN Pro Series Points (Max Top 5 events) |
Total Eligible Races Scored |
IRONMAN Races Scored |
IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored |
| 1 |
Matt Hanson (USA) |
10,693 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
| 2 |
Stenn Goetstouwers (BEL) |
9,817 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
| 3 |
Jackson Laundry (CAN) |
9,022 |
4 |
0 |
4 |
| 4 |
Colin Szuch (USA) |
8,969 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
| 5 |
Paul Schuster |
8,772 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
Full IRONMAN Pro Series standings can be found at proseries.ironman.com.
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Event Prize Money
In addition to the IRONMAN Pro Series’ $1.7M year-end bonus prize pool, there is an event pro prize purse payout of $2,575,000, distributed across IRONMAN Pro Series events. To date the IRONMAN Pro Series has paid out a total of $912,500. Over USD $1.6 million remains to be claimed at the remaining events.
Top Five Female Prize Money Earned (After 11 events)
| Rank |
Name (Country) |
IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz Prize Money |
Total Prize Money |
| 1 |
Kat Matthews (GBR) |
$18,000 |
$46,000 |
| 2 |
Jackie Hering (USA) |
0 |
$37,250 |
| 3 |
Hannah Berry (NZL) |
0 |
$33,500 |
| 4 |
Lotte Wilms (NLD) |
0 |
$26,000 |
| 5 |
Paula Findlay (CAN) |
0 |
$23,250 |
Top Five Male Prize Money Earned (After 11 events)
| Rank |
Name (Country) |
IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz Prize Money |
Total Prize Money |
| 1 |
Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (MEX) |
0 |
$28,000 |
| 2 |
Matt Burton (AUS) |
0 |
$25,000 |
| 3 |
Antonio Benito López (ESP) |
$18,000 |
$18,000 |
| 4 |
Patrick Lange (DEU) |
0 |
$17,500 |
| 5 |
Sam Long (USA) |
0 |
$17,000 |
Next Events Coming Up
The IRONMAN Pro Series stays in Europe with the IRONMAN Lake Placid triathlon taking place on July 21. IRONMAN Lake Placid will be the fifth full-distance IRONMAN triathlon and final stop for the Pro Series in North America and will offer professionals a maximum of 5,000 points towards IRONMAN Pro Series standings, a $125,000 event total pro prize purse, and three qualifying slots for each gender to the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Nice (women) and Kailua-Kona (men).
A FREE replay of broadcast coverage at the 2024 IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz triathlon is available on Outside+ for those watching from the United States and Canada; and for the rest of the world on proseries.ironman.com or IRONMAN’s YouTube Page.
For more information on the IRONMAN Pro Series, visit proseries.ironman.com.