Hering and Marquardt Claim 2025 Cairns Airport IRONMAN Cairns Triathlon Titles

For the first time in the history of the event, two American professional triathletes took out the Cairns Airport IRONMAN Cairns triathlon titles, with Jackie Hering (USA) securing her third IRONMAN triathlon victory, while Matthew Marquardt (USA) claimed a maiden professional IRONMAN triathlon win. Both Hering and Marquardt claim the maximum 5,000 IRONMAN Pro Series points and each earn $18,000 USD for their wins.

Hering broke the tape in 8:42:15, almost four minutes ahead of defending IRONMAN Cairns triathlon champion Hannah Berry (NZL), with Australian-based Dutch athlete Lotte Wilms making it back-to-back podium finishes in Tropical North Queensland in third. 

Hering’s performance on Sunday was all the more remarkable given she only made the decision to head to Cairns in the last week, after not finishing at the Qatar Airways IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship triathlon in Germany a fortnight ago. 

Hering was fifth out of the water behind Rebecca Clarke (NZL), Wilms, Berry, and Regan Hollioake (AUS). Clarke held onto the lead for the first 30km of the bike before Wilms joined her, with Wilms then moving ahead, opening up a lead over the chasing pack of Hering, Berry, Hollioake and Clarke. 

Wilms was first back into Cairns, coming off the bike with a two-and-a-half-minute lead over Berry, with Hering a minute further back, but that lead quickly evaporated for Wilms as she searched for her watch, eventually beginning the run just 30 seconds in front of Berry. 

Berry and Hering chipped away at Wilms’ lead over the first 10km, with the trio coming together at the front before Hering upped the ante and moved ahead, running consistently quicker than her competition across the back half of the marathon on her way to an impressive victory.

“It feels great to win. This course was so beautiful, it was the best. I just loved it, it was so fun,” said Hering. “This is really good, it worked out much better than Hamburg, so super happy. Everything works out how it's meant to, these are very good points. I'm headed to Lake Placid next, and there's going to be some very strong ladies there, so we'll see how that shakes out. I bagged the Kona slot today, which was actually the number one most important thing, so that's sweet. Kona is on my birthday this year, so it should be really fun.”

In taking the victory in Cairns, Marquardt became the first male professional from outside Australia or New Zealand to win the event in its 14-year history. The American crossed the finish line in 7:50:41 for his maiden professional IRONMAN triathlon victory.

“I mean, it's incredibly cool to [to be the first male professional triathlete from outside of Oceania to win IRONMAN Cairns]. I signed up for this race on a whim and certainly didn't have the most traditional build into this race with the cruise and everything in the long travel here, but I was really happy with the training that I put in in the off-season and I knew that a good race was there, I just didn't know when it was going to present myself,” said Marquardt. “So, to be able to put in a good performance and to be a groundbreaker, I guess, in that way is always incredibly meaningful and hopefully an inspiration to everyone else, because that's really what drives me more than anything else is to be a role model to others and to inspire people to do things that they can do themselves.” 

Australian athlete Nick Thompson was second over the line, less than three minutes behind Marquardt, with Australian-based Finnish athlete Henrik Goesch rounding out the podium. 

Athletes were faced with choppy conditions for the swim in Palm Cove, with South Africa’s Jamie Riddle hitting the front early and pushing on, finishing the 3.8km swim nine seconds up on Australia’s Josh Amberger, with Marquardt hot on his heels. Things quickly went south for Marquardt however, who limped his way through transition as he suffered from serious leg cramps, falling back to 16th early in the 180km ride, losing eight minutes to Riddle. 

Once Marquardt got his cramping issues under control he began chipping away on Riddle’s lead, with Thompson and fellow Australian Ben Hill joining the South African at the front of the field. The top three swapped positions at the front over the next 150km before Thompson surged ahead, coming into transition in Cairns almost two and a half minutes clear of Hill, with Marquardt working his way up to third. 

Thompson pushed the pace early on the run, opening up a four and a half minute lead over Hill, with Marquardt holding steady in third, before the American upped the pace, consistently taking time out of Thompson before moving into the lead with just over 10km to go and never looked back, crossing the line in front of thousands of spectators in the centre of Cairns.