Championships

Ironman World Championships

To compete in the Ironman World Championships is the pinnacle of every triathlete’s career. Originally, the event was held exclusively in Kona, Hawaii. In recent years, to accommodate ever growing numbers participating, the event started to rotate between Nice, France and Kona witha separate women’s and man’s race. There was also the one-off World Championship held in May 2022 as a replacement for the cancelled 2020/21 championships during the Covid years.

Since City of Lancaster Triathlon was founded in 2008, the Mighty COLT has been well represented on the Big Island. Chris Wild holds the outright record with 5 separate qualifications. John Knapp qualified on 3 occasions, and double qualifiers include Richard Mason (2011, 2012), Andy Ley (2019, 2023), Nick Hewitt (2021, 2023) and Jeanie Starkie (2023,2024). There have been 20 World Championships since the club was formed, with COLTs present at 12 of these. In fact, at least one COLT qualified on 13 occasions but the very first qualifier, John Knapp in 2008, did not race due to illness. This meant that the first COLTs to actually race in Kona were John Carr and John Knapp in 2010. The only other time a COLT who has qualified, accepted a place, but did not take the start was 2023 when Nick Hewitt, with terrible misfortune, was hit by a hit and run driver in the weeks building up to the race and suffered a broken collarbone and ribs. 

Only 5 women have qualified. Of these, only 2 have actually raced in Kona: Nikki Kay (now Marshall) and Kerry Oldfield. Jenny Evans-Hill raced in Utah in 2022 having previously missed out on a rolldown place at Ironman UK (due to having to go to work on the Monday, thus missing the award ceremony) and Elaine Boow, who became the 5th woman to qualify for the World Championships in Nice 2024 as a result of her gritty performance at Ironman Wales in 2023.

There has been at least 1 occasion when a COLT qualified as of right (i.e. not via rolldown) for the World Championships but did not accept their place: Jeanie Starkie qualified for Kona 2023 at Ironman UK by finishing second in her Age Group but did not take up her slot. She qualified again in 2024 and, this time, raced in Nice. This makes Jeanie the first COLT female to qualify more than once for the World Championships.

In all, 17 COLTs have qualified for the World Championships on 27 separate occasions. In 2014, John Towse and Nikki Kay ended a run of 7 years in which COLT was represented on the Big Island every year except 2. There followed a fallow period of 4 years in which no COLT qualified. That drought was broken in 2019 when Andy Ley and Kerry Oldfield went to Kona (Kerry was only the second woman to do so and set the fastest time for women in COLT). Since 2019, the club has had representation every year (no race in 2020). In 2021, the club broke previous records by having 5 athletes qualify, 4 of whom qualified for the first time. They raced in 2022, however, as the races in 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the pandemic. Uniquely, this meant that Chris Wild raced in St George, Utah in May 2022 for the 2021 World Championships, and in October 2022 in Kona for the 2022 World Championships – 2 World Championships in 6 months (he also raced at Ironman Lanzarote, Ironman Tallinn and Ironman UK in 2022 making 5 Ironman races in a single year, also a unique club achievement which he repeated in 2025). The race in Utah also saw COLT’s highest ever finish, with Nick Hewitt taking 5th in his age group.

There was a new club first in 2024 when 2 women, Elaine Boow and Jeanie Starkie, qualified for the same World Championships in Nice – the second time that Jeanie had qualified.

Chris Wild qualified for Nice in 2025 (extending his qualification record to 5 times) after his efforts at IM Tallinn in August 2024. He knocked out yet another sub 4 hour run on his way to a solid 79th in age group, only a few weeks after setting an Ironman PB at Tallinn finishing in under 10 hours. The World Championship was also Chris’ 50th Ironman!

For 2026 and onwards the event will revert purely to Kona and we will see who, if anyone, will travel to the other side of the globe to race in the famous black and white.

Not bad for a small local triathlon club!

Club Records

Fastest Male: Dan McParland, 2012, 9:46:02

Fastest Female: Kerry Oldfield, 2019, 11:41:08

Best Male Age Group Finish: Nick Hewitt, 2021 (Utah, May 2022) 5th M65-69

Best Female Age Group Finish: Jenny Evans-Hill, 2021 (Utah, May 2022) 16th F40-44

Most Qualifications (Individual): Chris Wild (2011, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025) John Knapp (2008, 2010, 2012), Richard Mason (2011, 2012), Andy Ley (2019, 2023), Nick Hewitt (2021, 2023), Jeanie Starkie (2023, 2024)

Most Qualifications (Club): 5 (2021 and 2023 (men’s race in Nice))

Total Qualifications: (19 male, 5 female)

Qualification Record

2026 – Kona: No Qualifier

2025 – Nice France Men’s World Championships: Chris Wild (11:39:14 79th in AG)

2025 – Kona Women’s World Championship: No Qualifier

2024 – Nice, France Women’s World Championship: Elaine Boow (14:16:05 119th in AG), Jeanie Starkie (14:09:41 85th in AG)

2024 – Kona, Men’s World Championships: No Qualifier

2023 – Nice, France Men’s World Championships: Chris Wild (11:16:52 45th in AG), Andy Ley (13:14:09 186th in AG), Nick Hewitt (Qualified but did not race), Max Thompson (11:04:35 59th in AG), Dan McParland (10:30:43 29th in AG)

2023 – Kona Women’s World Championships: Jeanie Starkie (qualified but did not accept her place)

2022 – Kona: Chris Wild (11:14:42, 191 in AG)

2021 – St George Utah (race took place in May 2022): Nick Hewitt (12:48:52, 5 in AG), Jenny Evans-Hill (11:56:26, 16 in AG), Chris Wild (11:09:43 35 in AG)

2021 – Kona (race took place in October 2022): Paul Smith (11:03:25, 324 in AG), Sam Cusworth (10:42:43, 117 in AG),

2020 – No Race

2019 – Andy Ley (10:55:55, 92 in AG), Kerry Oldfield (11:41:08, 52 in AG)

2018 - 20145 - No qualifier

2014- John Towse (11:14:21, 138 in AG), Nikki Kay (13:03:08, 52 in AG)

2013 – No qualifier

2012 – Dan McParland (9:46:02, 51 in AG), Richard Mason (11:11:30, 132 in AG), John Knapp (11:02:43, 52 in AG)

2011 – Chris Wild (10:52:30, 176 in AG) , Richard Mason (10:41:48, 102 in AG)

2010 – John Carr (11:01:33, 29 in AG), John Knapp (10:37:51, 80 in AG)

2009 – No qualifier

2008 – John Knapp (qualified but did not race due to illness)

Richard Mason, then COLT Club Captain in Kona 2011