Lucy Charles-Barclay Makes Winning Return to Racing After Plantaris Surgery

Lucy Charles-Barclay is back. The British triathlete returned to competitive racing on Saturday, winning the 42nd edition of the Club La Santa Volcano Triathlon in Lanzarote in 2:04:18 over the Olympic distance — her first race since surgeons removed a plantaris tendon in January. She didn’t ease her way back. She won outright, and posted the fastest swim split of the entire field.

The Race — Splits and Podium

Starting from the saltwater lagoon at Club La Santa in Tinajo, Charles-Barclay hit the water and simply left everyone behind — clocking 18:47, quicker than any man or woman in the field. She then laid down 1:04:13 on the 40 km bike before closing in 37:13 across the two-lap 10 km run. Her final margin over second place was approximately one minute.

Anne Haug finished second, arriving around the 2:05 mark. British compatriot Lydia Dant rounded out the elite women’s podium in third. The men’s race went to Belgian Dieter Comhair in 1:52:53, ahead of Denmark’s Daniel Bækkegaard and Belgium’s Laurens Verluyten.

The Volcano Triathlon — born in 1984 and the longest-running international triathlon in Spain — drew more than 350 participants from 25 nationalities. It sits on the FETRI (Spanish Triathlon Federation) calendar and has long served as a magnet for long-course talent during the spring Lanzarote training window.

The Comeback — Surgery and Recovery

Charles-Barclay went under the knife at the Fortis Clinic in London in January. Surgeons removed 12 centimetres of plantaris tendon after conservative treatment — including hyaluronic acid injections — failed to fix the problem. The plantaris is largely functionless in most people, but years of elite training had caused hers to enlarge significantly, leaving it rubbing directly against her Achilles and producing persistent pain.

“The surgery that I had done was I had my plantaris tendon removed — 12 centimetres of the tendon was removed and it was in that part of the tendon that there was a huge thickening and that was what had been rubbing on my Achilles tendon and causing a lot of discomfort.” — Lucy Charles-Barclay

Her recovery leaned heavily on the pool. Just four weeks post-surgery, she won the Essex County Championships 1500m freestyle in 17:29. Then, on March 13 at Ponds Forge, she took further time off — clocking 17:04 as her season best. Both swims were targeted partly at Commonwealth Games selection for Team England, though the required qualifying standard of 16:26.99 proved beyond reach this cycle.

“It felt so good to be back on the start line at the Volcano Triathlon. There is a lot of work to be done but this was the perfect way to kick off my training camp and really find out what I need to work on. Congrats to the podium ladies — Anne Haug (still fast AF) and Lydia Dant.” — Lucy Charles-Barclay, via Instagram

Kona 2026 — The Target

Her coach Dan Lorang has been consistent: health before race schedule. Saturday’s result suggests the progression is firmly on track. Kona 2026 is the stated objective — but to get there, Charles-Barclay has acknowledged she’ll need to complete an IRONMAN first, purely to secure validation. She’s been candid about what that race will look like.

“With my timeline, I have got to do an IRONMAN to validate for Kona. I don’t foresee that being a performance where I’m going to set the world alight. It’s going to be a performance where I tick the box, I get the validation done, and then those bigger performances will just have to come later in the year.” — Lucy Charles-Barclay

The obvious candidate is the Club La Santa IRONMAN Lanzarote on May 23 — the oldest IRONMAN event in Europe — falling just four weeks after Saturday’s race, on an island she knows intimately. Charles-Barclay has trained at Club La Santa since her age-group days and has credited a six-week block there with setting up her Kona breakthrough as a professional. No confirmation of her entry has been made public.

Haug, too, will be worth watching in the weeks ahead. A 1–2 finish at what amounts to a training race says something about where the 2026 long-course women’s field is heading — and how much a fully fit Charles-Barclay will matter when Kona arrives in October.