For so much of the Ironman World Championships, it looked like Lucy Charles-Barclay was going to reach the top of the podium in Kona, Hawaii. Instead, history repeated itself as she was narrowly beaten, taking second place for the third year in a row.

Charles-Barclay came out strongly and led from the front for seven hours 30 minutes until Anne Haug overtook her during the marathon, the final stage of the long-distance triathlon.  

In the end, Charles-Barclay finished just over six minutes behind Haug with a time of 8:46:44. The Brit posted the quickest 2.4-mile swim in 49:02 and 112-mile cycle in 4:47:21. As she started the marathon Charles-Barclay was over eight minutes ahead of the rest of the field.

Haug, the first German woman to become the Ironman World Champion, finished the bike ride eight minutes off the lead in third place. She pulled out a blistering marathon finishing in 2:51:07 to overtake Charles-Barclay ten kilometres from the finish. Charles-Barclay finished the run in 3:06:00.

Haug's winning time was 08:40:10. Sarah Crowley from Australia finished in third place with a time of 08:48:13.

Charles-Barclay has now won the silver medal in all three of her World Championships. Towards the later stages of the run, it even looked like she might place third after Crowley overtook her. Charles-Barclay managed to find enough in her legs to pull back into second with just over one mile to the finish line.

After the event, Charles-Barclay wrote on her Instagram: "Today I fought like I've never fought before, I rolled the dice & took a chance! There were times when I thought I could actually win this thing and then there were times when I thought I wouldn't finish at all & that is Kona! My little sprint in [the] last 2km to pull back into 2nd has made me unable to walk but it was so worth it!"