Recap: Marbella 70.3 World Championships
Mens race:
The chaos and madness was real in the transition zone, as 40 + guys exited the water within 1 min of one another, all desperate to “catch the train” for the very tough and tricky bike course, with more vertical raise over 90 km than IM Nice has in 180 km! Athletes that might have hoped for an easy ride in the pack, quickly saw “the writing on the wall” as Magnus Ditlev went to the front and absolutely drilled the pace.
Within 35 km the group of favorites were reduced to 10 guys, including Magnus, Bitados and Casper Stornes. Championship rookie Bitados had to let go after the turning point (probably burned too many matches), but in a great position that would ultimately lead to him finishing a solid 11th! Unfortunately the Marbella bike course and raceday windconditions, didn’t favour Magnus Ditlev's ability to attack by sheer force of power and drop all Sub 1.09 runners before T2.
For the neutral spectator, the run turned out to be one of the most thrilling “neck a’ neck” foot-races we have ever seen, culminating with defending champion Jelle Geens sprinting for the tape, just 3 sec ahead of Kristian Blummenfelt. Also chapeau to IM World Champion Casper Stornes with a super impressive 3rd place 100% pursuing the win, even though nobody would blame him for “resting on the laurels” after Nice.
For most of the race, Casper didn’t feel great at all, but when legs suddenly started to respond, he went “full kamikaze” to catch the front.
At km 19,5, he was only 25 sec back, but also realizing that he was “running out of real estate” and shifted to cruise control to finish 3rd”!
Women's race:
Solveig Løvseth once again demonstrated what a class act she is, with her 6th place finish in Marbella this Saturday on a course that didn’t favour her incredible power, like we saw a few weeks ago. Still, to perform on that level only 4 weeks after winning Ironman Hawaii, is truly spectacular. Not only because of the fatigue of hard racing, but the level of attention and sudden world fame adds an element of pressure most people can’t even comprehend.
If the world forgot about Sif Bendix Madsen as she was sidelined with injury for most of 2025, she surely gave us all a “wake-up call” this weekend! Out of the water in 6th and then absolutely hammering the bike, like the “pocket rocket” version of her “better half” Magnus Ditlev. Sif was 3rd fastest on the bike, but with limited run training, she had to fight tooth and nail to stay in contention. Luckily the wheels didn’t come off completely and Sif could finish her comeback in style with a very solid 11th place!
Also shoutout to Katrine Græsbøll, who has been very successful on the full Ironman distance this year, and now with her 15th place finish, demonstrate that she is also a legit world class 70.3 athlete
Ironman PRO SERIES:
Ironman 70.3 World Championship also marks the end of the PRO Series with 3 FUSION athletes on the podium. Our Norwegian World Champions Solveig Løvesth and Casper Stornes both ranked 2nd overall after a phenomenal season with consistent world class performances on 70.3 and full ironman distance.
3rd place overall in the PRO series is Kristian Høgenhaug, who was “sick as a dog” during Marbella race-week, but dragged himself to the start anyway and finished a solid 21st! “The Hawk” has been flying faster than ever before this season and he has been the very definition of consistent. Within 3 magical weeks in June/July, he out-biked a world-class pro field by 8 min to finish 2nd in IM Frankfurt, then “recovering” with a 5th in 70.3 Swansea before flying to IM Lake Placid taking home another 2nd place. A few weeks before the Ironman World Championship, Kristian was thrown another curveball, fatherhood! Training was then cut to a bare minimum, but Kristian nonetheless managed to finish 12th in the world.