Sport
9 June, 2025
Champions line up for race
FIVE former Ironman Cairns champions return to the start line next weekend, with Braden Currie (NZ) and Max Neumann (AUS) both going for their fourth title, Hannah Berry (NL) is aiming for back-to-back victories, Kylie Simpson (AUS) is hoping to secure a third win and Josh Amberger (AUS) is vying to run it back and add to his 2017 title.
2024 Cairns Airport Ironman Cairns women’s podium returns, with Lotte Wilms (NLD) joining Berry and Simpson on the start line.
Matthew Marquardt (USA), Matt Hanson (USA), Jamie Riddle (ZAF) and Arnaud Guilloux (FRA) are among a host of international challengers who could make history as the first professional male triathlete from outside the Oceania region to earn an Ironman Cairns title.
The Ironman Pro Series heads back Down Under for its 10th stop of the 2025 season as the Cairns Airport Ironman Cairns triathlon returns to Tropical North Queensland.
Set to the stunning backdrop of two UNESCO World Heritage sites – the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest – ‘the race in paradise’ promises intriguing storylines as former champions aim to return to their perch while a host of international challengers will be out to make history of their own.
Nearly 60 of the world’s top professional triathletes will battle it out on Sunday for the title, a share of the $US125,000 prize purse, a maximum of 5000 Pro Series points to the winners and five qualifying slots per gender to the 2025 world championship triathlons in Nice, France (men’s race) and Kona, Hawaii (women’s race).
Three-time Ironman Cairns champions Braden Currie (NZ) and Max Neumann (AUS) will return once again in search of a historic fourth title – a feat no athlete has yet achieved at this race.
Currie will start as the slight favourite in the men’s race, with Cairns being a place and race the Kiwi loves and has enjoyed great success at over the years. Alongside his 2018, 2019, and 2023 victories, Currie has finished second twice – most recently last year.
Meanwhile, Neumann has been plagued by injury for the past couple of years, but will be a force to be reckoned with should he rediscover the form that saw him clock three successive Ironman Cairns victories between 2020 and 2022.
This will be Neumann’s first Ironman triathlon since his victory at the 2022 edition of the Western Australia triathlon.
Or will a different slice of history be made?
No athlete from outside the Oceania region has won the men’s title in the 14-year history of the Ironman Cairns race, a statistic a host of challengers from further afield will be hoping to change, including Frenchman Arnaud Guilloux, 2024 fourth place finisher, USA duo Matthew Marquardt and Matt Hanson, who finished fourth and fifth respectively in the 2024 Ironman Pro Series, and South African Jamie Riddle, a young gun Olympian lining up for just his second ever Ironman.
