The best triathletes in the world are looking for the world champion over the half distance 70.3 on Sunday (November 9th, 2025) in Marbella, Spain. The world elite including the Germans Jonas Schomburg and Rico Bogen are chasing the three “super Norwegians” Caspar Stornes, Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt.
For Rico Bogen the matter is clear: “It’s definitely the best starting field of all time. For me there are about 15 athletes who can get on the podium,” the Leipzig triathlete told the Sportschau before the Ironman half-distance World Championships in Marbella, Spain. The race on Sunday (live from 7:40 a.m. on Sportschau.de and in the ARD media library) offers the fitting end to a furious triathlon year.
After the breathtaking races in Nice, the drama in Hawaii and the course record at the European Championships in Frankfurt, the last highlight of the year delivers once again, at least on paper. The start list? Hard to top: All 70.3 world champions since 2019, including Bogen (Champ 2023), plus 10 of the top 15 of the Long Distance World Championships in Nice and all three top Norwegian athletes who took part in the event Cote d’Azur had dominated, are there.
Bow stacks deep
Bogen’s own chances of winning the title are correspondingly low. “To talk about victory wouldn’t be so realistic. Winning a medal would be a dream,” says the 25-year-old. In addition to Bogen, German hopes also rest on whiz kid Jonas Schomburg. The second of the Challenge Roth should make the competition difficult from the start and rely on his strength being sufficient for the half distance of 1.9 kilometers of swimming, 90 kilometers of cycling and 21.1 kilometers of running.
At the Long Distance World Championships in Nice, the man from Hanover shaped the race for a long time before he had to pay tribute to his aggressive approach. But he will certainly seek salvation again by fleeing forward. Bogen’s interests are similar: setting off fireworks right from the start and then persevering.
Norwegians scout intensively
In addition to the 2024 world champion, Jelle Geens (Belgium), the big opponents come primarily from Norway and have them Iron Manscene last year. At the World Cup in Nice, Stornes, Iden and Blummenfelt had a fascinating exchange of blows with several leadership changes – in the end, something surprisingly Stornes won. At the European Long Distance Championships in Frankfurt, however, Blummenfelt dominated the competition.
Now the Scandinavians have set their sights on the final highlight of the season and are preparing as meticulously as usual. They have been training in southern Spain for several weeks and scouting out every inch of the route. They will particularly have the difficult cycling route in mind: 1,785 meters of altitude have to be overcome over the 90 kilometers. Beforehand it goes 1.9 kilometers with several changes of direction through the open Mediterranean.
The final half marathon is relatively flat and takes two laps along the beach promenade. A small special feature is an approximately one kilometer long section on firm gravel that is run twice. “It’s not a difficult surface. But at an average of 3:00 minutes per kilometer you can feel the difference”said Iden according to tri-mag.de. It’s little things like that that will ultimately make the world champion.