Can Hayden Wilde fully consign to history the heartache of Taupo two years ago? Will the French Alps help him do so? Or will the likes of Jelle Geens and Kristian Blummenfelt prove glory in the 70.3 distance and above is for long distance specialists only, not those also still besotted by Olympic Games gold?
Answers to all that and more will be found on Sunday when Nice hosts the 20th edition of the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
Wilde arrives as the PTO World No.1 and reigning T100 champion, but a 70.3 world title has eluded him. He was runner-up in Taupo in December 2024 — the title seemingly his, in a script painfully familiar from Paris, until it wasn’t, outkicked late by Geens after going to the well early on the run to press home his advantage off the bike.
Geens backed that up with victory in Marbella last November, beating Blummenfelt in a sprint finish, and now arrives in Nice chasing something no man has ever done — a third 70.3 world title, a feat only Taylor Knibb and Daniela Ryf have managed on the women’s side.
Wilde’s route to this start line came with a detour. He qualified for Nice at 70.3 Geelong on March 22, only entering after WTCS Abu Dhabi was postponed following the outbreak of the Middle East conflict. He finished third that day, and the split times told their own story: Blummenfelt ran 1:06:39 to erase almost a minute on race leader Wilde, comfortably faster than both Geens (1:08:30) and Wilde himself (1:09:04) — a marker of what Big Blu can do off the bike when he’s on.
Geens, Blummenfelt and reigning full-distance Ironman world champion Casper Stornes head the men’s seedings. The field behind the top three is also loaded: Germany’s Jonas Schomburg and Rico Bogen, Norway’s Gustav Iden, South Africa’s Jamie Riddle, France’s Vincent Luis and Belgium’s Marten Van Riel all carry genuine podium credentials.
The course sets up as one of the toughest in 70.3 Worlds history but just might suit the Kiwi. A 1931m swim in the Mediterranean Sea leads into a brutal 90km bike leg with 1244m of climbing through the Alpes-Maritimes, headlined by the ascent of Col de Vence — terrain that should play into the power of the Whakatane-bred 29-year-old. From there, a two-loop, 21.1km run with 107m of elevation along the Promenade des Anglais will decide the title.
This is only the second leg of a crazy busy September for Wilde. Last weekend he pushed Matthew Hauser close at the Supertri Pro Series Final in Jersey, finishing runner-up for a NZ$172k payday. From Nice he heads into a T100 stop on the French Riviera and then the WTCS Grand Final in Pontevedra to close out the month — but Nice shapes as the one that matters most.
Wilde already holds a healthy lead in the T100 standings and has no path to the WTCS title this year, though he does need world and Olympic ranking points out of Pontevedra after a season disrupted by illness. The 70.3 crown remains the obvious mid-distance gap on his CV, and the one he’ll be most motivated to fill.
His 2026 form line has been a season searching for its best day: 3rd at 70.3 Geelong (March 22), a statement win at the Singapore T100 (April 25), 3rd at the T100 San Francisco (June 6), then a rough 27th at WTCS Hamburg (July 11), where a penalty compounded a race in which the Andorra-based Kiwi was clearly still feeling the effects of a lung infection.
The men’s race takes the gun at 7am CEST — 5pm back home in New Zealand — with live coverage on Ironman’s YouTube channel and Ironman.com/proseries starting 30 minutes earlier.
It’s a repeat of the women’s timings on Saturday where Wilde’s fiancée, Belgium’s Hannah De Vet, lines up. With Brit Lucy Charles-Barclay opting out, the women’s field is headed by top seeds Taylor Knibb (USA), Marjolaine Pierré (France) and Solveig Løvseth (Norway), with Germany’s Laura Philips and Britain’s Kat Matthews among the other genuine threats.
Kiwi Hannah Berry (pictured above) qualified for Nice but the Mt Maunganui 35-year-old won’t be on the Promenade des Anglais. Instead, she’ll wear the No.1 bib almost 16,400km away at Ironman 70.3 Sunshine Coast in Mooloolaba on Sunday, using it as build-up for the full Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on October 10. It’s a course with history for Berry — her first-ever 70.3 back in 2017, her maiden 70.3 win in 2019, and a second-place finish there in 2022, her last appearance on it since.
Berry heads a strong contingent of Kiwis named across the pro fields in Mooloolaba with Rebecca Clarke ranked 2nd, Danielle Donaldson 8th and Angharad Llewellyn 12th.
The men’s field is topped by M1 Trent Thorpe, Ben Hamilton (M3), Lachlan Haycock (M5), Scott Harpham (M11), Xander Marsh (M12), Brett Clifford (M12), Guy Crawford (M19).
