Belgium’s Jelle Geens and Australia’s Natalie Van Coevorden have claimed the men’s and women’s professional titles at IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie.
For Geens it was a win on his IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie debut, while Van Coevorden made it back-to-back victories on the New South Wales Mid-North Coast.
Geens, the 2024 and 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, was first across the line in 3:44:34, two and a half minutes ahead of Kieran Storch, with Mitch Kibby third.
Josh Ferris was first out of the water following the 1.9km swim but a crash early into the bike leg took him out of the race, with Geens moving into the lead. From there Geens didn’t look back, keeping the gap to the chasing pack consistent across the 90km course, coming off the bike with a minute lead over Roland Crantock.
Geens edged ahead at every timing point on the run on his way to victory, his first race since finishing third at the 2026 Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France, in September.
“It was good, it was hard, but fun. It didn't start exactly how I wanted, I wanted to really try and stick with Josh in the swim and he got a gap immediately from the start. I didn't have the best start so had to overtake some people and there was a bit of a gap and I couldn't really close and had to settle,” said Geens. “Then I didn't really see what happened with Josh, I saw at the u-turn that he wasn't there anymore and from then on I just tried to set my own pace and do a good second lap on the bike. It seemed like I got to extend my gap there a little bit and then try to just run it in and be fast, I got comfortable on the run, it always starts to hurt at the end because it's still an IRONMAN 70.3 that you have to do, but it was a good day out.
“I knew I had maybe a bit over a minute off the bike and if I had my normal run legs I should be able to hold that and I started running 3.20, maybe a bit quicker and just tried to hold there for as long as possible,” he said. “I lost a bit with all the corners towards the end, I just set out on a good base, it was manageable for the 21k, fast enough to be able to know what I was going to at least hold my gap.”
Geens now lives on the Gold Coast, and enjoyed the crowd support out on course.
“It was really cool, even passing all the Age Groupers on the bike, there are lots of cheers and lots of 'go Jelle’, which was really cool actually. And then also on the run lots of spectators shouting my name, which is cool because it's not a very common name here, it was it was really nice,” he said.
Natalie Van Coevorden made it back-to-back wins in Port Macquarie in the women’s race, taking the tape in 4:16:40, just 30 seconds ahead of Emily Watts, with Demi Birch third.
Van Coevorden’s win was her fourth IRONMAN 70.3 victory of 2026, following visits to the top step of the podium in Western Sydney, Spain and the Philippines.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games representative was first to finish the swim, hitting the bike ahead of Birch and Sian Munks but it was former professional cyclist Watts who was the early mover in the bike erasing a two-and-a-half-minute deficit within the first 20km to hit the lead.
From there Watts powered ahead, opening up an almost four-minute lead over Van Coevorden by the end of the bike leg. Once off the bike Van Coevorden got to work erasing the deficit to Watts, chipping away until eventually taking the lead with five kilometres remaining.
“Oh my god, I was fighting some absolute demons out there today. Unfortunately, we had some pretty tough weather on the bike and being a quite small build, I just really suffered and there were many times where I thought I was going to stop, to be honest,” said Van Coevorden. “When I heard it was four minutes off the bike, I didn't know if I could run her down, but the first 10k showed that I could and I just kept fighting and honestly, I think it just shows that you have to keep believing in yourself sometimes. It's amazing to get another win here and defend my title from last year.
“I didn't really know how it was going to happen, but in the first couple of k's I was putting in time pretty quickly and I just backed myself. I've been doing heaps of training, which has really reflected what I could run today,” she said. “It's a bit funny running from behind and running from the front, but I think it was fun actually chasing because I kept backing myself that I could catch her and when I caught her, I just kept running the same pace that I was running and got a bit of a gap towards the end.
Sunday’s event featured both IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie and IRONMAN Australia, with IRONMAN athletes taking on a 3.8km swim, 180km ride and 42.2km run, with finishers to continue crossing the finish line until just after midnight tonight.
IRONMAN Australia and IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie is supported proudly by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.
More on IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie can be found at ironman.com/races/im703-port-macquarie.
IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie – Professional Men’s Results
- Jelle Geens – 3:44:34
- Kieran Storch – 3:47:06
- Mitch Kibby – 3:49:33
- Roland Crantock – 3:49:44
- Jarrod Osborne – 3:50:27
- Vincent Größer – 3:53:37
- John Fothergill – 3:54:44
- Monty Dixon – 3:55:20
- Jacob Lipari – 3:55:36
- Sam Osborne – 3:57:10
IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie – Professional Women’s Results
- Natalie Van Coevorden – 4:16:40
- Emily Watts – 4:17:12
- Demi Birch – 4:25:01
- Laura Gillard – 4:27:52
- Chloe Hartnett – 4:28:03
- Sian Munks – 4:36:07
- Emily Donker – 4:41:02
- Jenna Horner – 4:44:07
- Chino Iwabuchi – 4:44:43
- Kate Gillespie-Jones – 4:47:11