French triathlete Sam Laidlow endured a difficult start to his 2026 season after being forced to withdraw early from the Barcelona Marathon on Sunday.
The former Ironman World Champion and reigning Challenge Roth champion had planned to open his year with a spring marathon before turning his focus back to triathlon racing. However, the experiment did not go as planned. Laidlow started the Barcelona Marathon but stepped out of the race after just 14 kilometers.
While there are certainly worse setbacks in sport, the result is unlikely to boost the Frenchman’s confidence. Laidlow’s preparation had already been far from ideal. Three weeks ago he fell ill and also began experiencing pain in his foot, which forced him to significantly reduce his training volume in the weeks leading up to the race.
Despite those challenges, Laidlow had hoped to run somewhere between 2:20 and 2:30, but the race ended much earlier than expected.
