The IRONMAN® 70.3® Geelong triathlon launched the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series™ with a bang, with close racing and tight battles highlighting the day, with reigning IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Jelle Geens and Australia’s Natalie Van Coevorden the best athletes on the day as they claimed victory in the and men’s and women’s races. As winners of IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong, Geens and Van Coevorden will each take home USD $7,500 and 2,500 IRONMAN Pro Series points.
Geens picked up where he left off when he was crowned IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion in New Zealand last December, crossing the line first in 3:33:23, 45 seconds clear of a fast-finishing Jake Birtwhistle (AUS), with New Zealand’s Tayler Reid rounding out the podium on his IRONMAN 70.3 race debut.
“I’m stoked of course, it’s good to start the season with a win, it was a hard-fought win for sure. I wasn’t 100 percent sure how I was going to feel because I got sick a couple of weeks ago and then my partner got sick and it was very busy with the baby, but luckily we had a lot of help from her family. In the end I actually felt really good, but I needed it today because the guys were on fire.
“There was Aaron Royle and Matt Hauser who are two of the best swimmers in the world, so they kept an honest pace on the swim, but I was very happy that I actually came with them out of the water and was in the front straight away. I tried to really push from kilometre 15 to kilometre 30 on the bike but you could really see that it was too hard to really make a gap and break people, so then I decided to not spend too much energy and really focus on that run,” said Geens. “The second lap of the bike was quite a bit faster which hurt some people’s legs, maybe quite a bit. I then set out on quite a fast pace on the run, the ITU boys kept following, I guess they think it’s quite a chilled pace to keep for a couple of kilometres, but then I got a gap and I slowly increased it and I could start running my pace that I knew I felt I could do for the 21k.”
In the women's race Natalie Van Coevorden claimed a breakthrough win, with the Australian Olympian finishing less than 30 seconds clear of New Zealand’s Hannah Berry, with Grace Thek from Australia, third, extending her impressive run of podiums in Geelong to eight in a row.
“I’m pretty ecstatic to be honest,” said Van Coevorden. “You’re not going to hold up the banner too many times in your career and holding up an IRONMAN 70.3 one so early in my switch [from short-course racing] is really special. Everything played out how I wanted it to today and it couldn’t have gone any more perfectly. “We had a pretty fast swim and had a bit of a gap, I had a plan to ride pretty hard for the first 10k so I could gap the field a little bit. We then had four girls on the bike working pretty well together and then I paced the run to perfection today. I really loved the undulation on the run course, it really kept me focused, I couldn’t ask for anything more.
“Hannah was probably sitting 10 to 20 seconds ahead for that first eight to nine k and then it finally just came down in a k that gap, I just told myself to keep running, you don’t need to do anything special, and it paid off in the end and I ran the best race I could,” she said. “At IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne in 2022 I lost it with a k to go and I really made a focus on my nutrition today, that’s been a big switch from short course racing, and I think I really played it the best I could,” she said.
But it was almost a win that didn’t happen for Van Coevorden after starting the day unwell.
“I was messaging my coach, my mum, my boyfriend, saying should I start, should I not start, and they all said back yourself, you’ve had a really good block of training and you’re probably fitter that you think and I think all those years of racing, 13, 14 years of doing triathlon now really paid off today because my body just knew what to do when I needed it most,” she said.
At IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong professional athletes were competing for a maximum of 2,500 IRONMAN Pro Series points, a total event pro prize purse of $50,000, and three qualifying slots per gender to the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlon in Marbella, Spain.?
Top Five Female Professional Results
| Place |
Name |
Swim |
Bike |
Run |
Total Time |
Pro Series Points (Unofficial) |
Event Prize Money |
| 1 |
Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS) |
23:24 |
2:15:22 |
1:22:29 |
4:05:50 |
2,500 |
$7,500 |
| 2 |
Hannah Berry (NZL) |
23:37 |
2:14:58 |
1:23:13 |
4:06:29 |
2,470 |
$5,000 |
| 3 |
Grace Thek (AUS) |
24:29 |
2:19:25 |
1:18:59 |
4:07:42 |
2,397 |
$3,750 |
| 4 |
Regan Hollioake (AUS) |
24:24 |
2:14:12 |
1:26:43 |
4:10:19 |
2,240 |
$3,000 |
| 5 |
Chloe Lane (AUS) |
24:25 |
2:19:19 |
1:25:59 |
4:14:55 |
1,964 |
$2,000 |
Top Five Male Professional Results
| Place |
Name (Country) |
Swim |
Bike |
Run |
Total Time |
Pro Series Points (Unofficial) |
Event Prize Money |
| 1 |
Jelle Geens (BEL) |
21:40 |
1:59:56 |
1:07:58 |
3:33:24 |
2,500 |
$7,500 |
| 2 |
Jake Birtwhistle (AUS) |
21:44 |
1:59:53 |
1:08:47 |
3:34:09 |
2,455 |
$5,000 |
| 3 |
Tayler Reid (NZL) |
21:36 |
2:00:02 |
1:09:14 |
3:34:39 |
2,425 |
$3,750 |
| 4 |
Cameron Main (GBR) |
21:40 |
1:59:58 |
1:09:21 |
3:34:49 |
2,415 |
$3,000 |
| 5 |
Kenji Nener (JPN) |
21:37 |
2:24:00 |
1:10:56 |
3:36:23 |
2,321 |
$2,000 |
Race Notes
- Reigning IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Jelle Geens (BEL) picked up where he left off when he claimed the world title in New Zealand in December, impressing on his way to victory
- Australia’s Natalie Van Coevorden claimed her breakthrough IRONMAN 70.3 race win after podium finishes in Melbourne and Bahrain in recent years
- Grace Thek (AUS) continued her impressive run of podium finishes in Geelong, with her third today making it eight straight years in a row where she’s stood on the dais
- Josh Ferris (AUS) set the fastest swim time of the day with a 21:28, with Teresa Adam (NZL) the quickest female with a 23:24
- Former professional cyclist Ben Hill (AUS) set the bike course best time of the day, covering the 56mile/90km bike course in 1:57:51
- Geens was the fastest runner of the day, clocking a 1:07:58 on his way to victory
- Reigning IRONMAN Australia, IRONMAN Malaysia and ANZCO Foods IRONMAN New Zealand champion Regan Hollioake (AUS) set the fastest bike time in the women’s race with a 2:14:12
- Grace Thek charged through the field in the women’s race, with her 1:18:59 the fastest female run, moving her from sixth at the end of the bike to finish third overall
- New Zealand’s Tayler Reid was impressive on his IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon race debut, finishing third overall
- Both champions, Geens and Van Coevorden, were racing at IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong for the first time.
Full results for the IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong triathlon can be found at
ironman.com/im703-geelong-results. For additional event information, please visit
ironman.com/races/im703-geelong.
IRONMAN Pro Series StandingsThe IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based triathlon race series with professional triathletes able to earn points at 18 select races in 17 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.???
Victories for Geens and Van Coevorden ensured both athletes walked away with the maximum IRONMAN Pro Series points available for an IRONMAN 70.3 of 2,500. This weekend’s results mean Geens and Van Coevorden take an early lead in the overall IRONMAN Pro Series standings. Athletes finishing behind the race winner saw their points diminish with every second that ticked off behind the race winner.
IRONMAN Pro Series Overall Standings – Top Five Women (After One Event)
| Rank |
Name (Country) |
Total IRONMAN Pro series Points (Unofficial) |
Total Eligible Races Scored |
Eligible IRONMAN Races Scored |
Eligible IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored |
| 1 |
Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS) |
2,500 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 2 |
Hannah Berry (NZL) |
2,470? |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 3 |
Grace Thek (AUS)? |
2,397? |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 4 |
Regan Hollioake (AUS)? |
2,240? |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 5 |
Chloe Lane (AUS)? |
1,964? |
1 |
0 |
1 |
IRONMAN Pro Series Overall Standings – Top Five Men (After One Event)
| Rank |
Name (Country) |
Total IRONMAN Pro series Points (Unofficial) |
Total Eligible Races Scored |
Eligible IRONMAN Races Scored |
Eligible IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored |
| 1 |
Jelle Geens (BEL) |
2,500 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 2 |
Jake Birtwhistle (AUS) |
2,455 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 3 |
Tayler Reid (NZL) |
2,425 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 4 |
Cameron Main (GBR)? |
2,415 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| 5 |
Kenji Nener (JPN)? |
2,321 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Full IRONMAN Pro Series standings can be found at
proseries.ironman.com.
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Event Prize MoneyIn addition to the IRONMAN Pro Series’ $1.7M year-end bonus prize pool, there is an event pro prize purse payout of $2,450,000, distributed across IRONMAN Pro Series events. With the first IRONMAN Pro Series race complete, a total of $50,000 has been earned by professional athletes so far – leaving $2.4M to be claimed at the remaining events.
Top Five Female Prize Money Earned (After One Event)
| Rank |
Name |
Country |
IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong Prize Money |
Total Prize Money
USD |
| 1 |
Natalie Van Coevorden |
AUS |
$7,500 |
$7,500 |
| 2 |
Hannah Berry |
NZL |
$5,000 |
$5,000 |
| 3 |
Grace Thek |
AUS |
$3,750 |
$3,750 |
| 4 |
Regan Hollioake |
AUS |
$3,000 |
$3,000 |
| 5 |
Chloe Lane |
AUS |
$2,000 |
$2,000 |
Top Five Male Prize Money Earned (After One Event)
| Rank |
Name |
Country |
IRONMAN 70.3 Western Australia Prize Money |
Total Prize Money
USD |
| 1 |
Jelle Geen |
BEL |
$7,500 |
$7,500 |
| 2 |
Jake Birtwhistle |
AUS |
$5,000 |
$5,000 |
| 3 |
Tayler Reid |
NZL |
$3,750 |
$3,750 |
| 4 |
Cameron Main |
GBR |
$3,000 |
$3,000 |
| 5 |
Kenji Nener |
JPN |
$2,000 |
$2,000 |
Next Events Coming UpThe 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series gets off to a flying start with three consecutive weekends of racing. With the season opening IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong done and dusted and first IRONMAN 70.3 points on the board, the action turns to full distance racing as the first IRONMAN triathlon of the series – the ISUZU IRONMAN South Africa African Championship – gets underway next Sunday, 30 March. The 20th anniversary edition of the IRONMAN South Africa triathlon will offer a maximum of 5,000 series points to the winner with a total event pro prize of US $175,000 up for grabs.
The IRONMAN Pro Series will then make its first stop on the American continent a week later as the highly anticipated IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside triathlon returns on Sunday 6 April.
A free replay of the IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong triathlon broadcast is available to international audiences via
proseries.ironman.com or
IRONMAN’s YouTube Page, and on?
Outside+ for those watching from the United States and Canada.?
For more information on the IRONMAN Pro Series, visit
proseries.ironman.com.