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Charles-Barclay returns to racing at World Triathlon Long Distance Championships

British star's "roller coaster ride" dealing with hip injury finally over as she gears up for world championship race

Photo by: Kevin Mackinnon

While she won’t be representing Europe as one of the top athletes (as she was a year ago), three-time Kona runner-up and defending Ironman 70.3 world champion Lucy Charles-Barclay will be in Samorin, Slovakia in just under two weeks. The three-time winner of the Challenge Championship at the x-bionicsphere (the host venue for the Collins Cup) is making her comeback to racing at the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships, which will be taking place on the same weekend.

After a stellar year that saw her finish second at Great Britain’s Olympic trials 1,500 m in the pool, make an auspicious World Triathlon Championship Series debut with a fifth-place finish in Leeds and earn her first world championship with the 70.3 win in St. George, Charles-Barclay was one of the favourites heading into the Ironman World Championship St. George before she was sidelined by a hip injury.

Today she announced that she’s recovered from the injury and is gearing up to race in Slovakia.

 

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“It’s been a roller coaster ride to get to this point, but I’m finally ready to put on a race number and find out where I’m at,” Charles-Barclay wrote. “Whilst there are no expectations for this race it will be nice to draw a line in the sand and get back to doing what I love most.”

Whether or not we’ll see Charles-Barclay on the line at the Ironman World Championship in October is likely up in the air – the event in Slovakia includes a 2 km swim, 80 km bike and an 18 km run – the same distances the elites will race the day before at the Collins Cup.