An incredible performance by the 28-year-old Brit saw her lead the field from start to finish at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in St. George, USA.
Right from the starting gun, former elite swimmer Lucy Charles-Barclay was able to position herself at the front of a stacked field. She rapidly took several hundred yards out of the chasing group, before heading out of the water after just over 24 minutes with an almost 90-second advantage.
Charles-Barclay then set a blistering pace on the 90 km bike leg where she made it clear that the day’s victory was hers for the taking. Brit Lucy posted the fastest bike split of the day (at 2:14:59) on her CUBE Aerium C:68 and by T2 had extended her lead to almost five minutes over second-placed Taylor Knibb (silver medallist in Tokyo) and over six minutes on the holder of multiple Ironman and Ironman 70.3 World Champion titles, Daniela Ryf.
Lucy sealed the deal with a half marathon time of 1:18:48 in a fantastic display of her run strength and a huge pay-off for all her hard training. After a total time of 4:00:20 out on the course, Charles-Barclay took the win by a margin of over eight minutes on runner-up Jeanni Metzler and bronze medallist Taylor Knibb. With several silver medals already to her name, this World Champion title marks Lucy Charles-Barclay’s first time on the top step of the worlds podium.