TRIATHLON takes centre stage in the UK this weekend with Ironman taking place in Bolton.

An exciting line-up of professional athletes will be at the start line at Pennington Flash in Leigh to battle it out for the title.

The professional women’s race sees the defending champion, Lucy Gossage return as race favourite.

She has already successfully defended her title at Ironman Staffordshire this year and a second place at Ironman Edinburgh.

Gossage, who returned to working full-time this year, will have fond memories of Bolton.

Not only did she win in 2016, she did so with a margin of nearly 20 minutes on the second placed athlete.

Strong on the bike and exceptional on the run, Gossage will be difficult to beat on a course she knows well and on current form.

She will come up against familiar competitors in Nikki Bartlett and Lucy Charles.

Bartlett finished second to Gossage at Ironman Staffordshire in June so knows what she is up against. With third place finishes at Ironman Wales, Ironman Pays d’aix and Ironman Norway in 2016, a podium at Ironman UK will be a strong statement from the athlete from Cheltenham.

Lucy Charles continues to impress in 2017 and will be confident after a second place finish at the Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt only one week ago.

She already has an Ironman win to her name this year after her exploits in Lanzarote and adding her sub-nine hour second place in Frankfurt only proves that the former age group world champion is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

At 23, Charles is the youngest athlete in the women’s professional field and if she continues on her current trajectory, we can expect to see further honours coming her way.

The international competition will once again be fierce with multiple Ironman champion, Germany’s Diana Riesler, also in the line-up. Riesler is tough opponent with an established race pedigree.

She has Ironman wins in Lanzarote, Malaysia and is no stranger to Ironman UK having finished second in 2011.

Another German in the field is Katja Konschak who finished third in Bolton in 2016.

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The professional men’s field boasts some exciting talent, headlined by defending champion, Kirill Kotseragov.

The Estonian recorded a superb victory in 2016 and will be looking to repeat the feat this year.

He will arguably be coming up against a stronger field than in 2016 with the likes of France’s Cyril Viennot, Spain’s Clemente Alonso-McKernan and local favourites, Harry Wiltshire and Will Clarke. Both Viennot and Alonso-McKernan are experienced athletes with big results on their records.

Viennot is a former Kona top five finisher and has good results in France and South Africa to his name.

Likewise, Alonso-McKernan also has impressive results on his record including a win in South Africa and more recently, a top five finish at the Ironman North American Championship in Texas in 2016.

Also returning to Bolton is Romain Guillaume. The diminutive Frenchman had a DNF in 2016 but has made a strong start to 2017, claiming a win at Ironman South Africa and a second place finish at Ironman Staffordshire.

He has been in a rich vein of form since the start of the year but is still looking for an Ironman victory.

He will have a good chance to put the disappointment of 2016 behind him and push for a podium.

Great Britain’s Harry Wiltshire is known as a fast swimmer but he has also translated fast starts into substantial results over the past year.

He recorded wins at Ironman Weymouth and Ironman Vichy in 2016 along with a second place finish at Ironman Dublin.

He is joined by fellow Brits, Will Clarke and Fraser Cartmell on the start line.