Sophie Evans is relishing her first race on home soil since the birth of her daughter when the World Triathlon Championship Series returns to London. Evans (nee Coldwell) gave birth to Phoebe in May 2025 and was back in elite competition in March when she finished fifth at the World Triathlon Cup in Lanzarote.

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The occasion made all the more special by Phoebe being able to watch her on what was, fittingly, Mother’s Day weekend.

“My mum, [husband] Tom and Phoebe were there, so it was an enjoyable week and a great way to kick-start my return to triathlon,” she said.

“If you'd asked me before Phoebe, triathlon was the be all and end all for me. I didn't have anything to ground myself outside triathlon, it was my whole life.

“But now I have something in my life that far outweighs triathlon. I go into races feeling a lot freer and I enjoy it more than I did before.”

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Evans last competed in a WTCS event in the UK in June 2022, in Leeds, and this year marks the first time a race of its kind has been held in the capital for 11 years.

It forms part of the T200 London Triathlon weekend, which will see thousands of amateur participants taking part in various races on what has been dubbed triathlon’s equivalent of the London Marathon.

The participation levels are no surprise to Evans, who has witnessed a surge in interest in running within her own family.

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“She's done a bit of running and parkrun over the years, but this year she ran the London Marathon for Myeloma UK, which was a huge thing for her,” Evans said.

“She’s become a parkrun queen too!”

Evans had to stop her mum driving 75 minutes for a parkrun on Christmas Day – ‘I was like, Pauline, that is too far!’ – but she hopes to have plenty of familiar faces getting behind her in the capital.

“When I heard it was coming back to London this year, I immediately thought, ‘I really hope I get a start for that’,” added Evans, who claimed gold as part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games mixed relay team.

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“Thankfully, I did, and now I just need to put in a good performance because you always want to do well in front of a home crowd.

“Family and friends will be there watching, so it will feel like a bit of a full-circle moment. The last T100 race before having Phoebe was in London in 2024 and lots of family and friends came to watch.

“Eighteen months on, it will be nice to come back and hopefully have a good race.”

Former England rugby captain Chris Robshaw, Strictly Come Dancing pro dancer Julian Caillon and McFly drummer Harry Judd are among the cast of more than 5,000 weekend warriors set to feature in events of varying distances.

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And when asked for her own dream celebrity triathlon team, Evans replied: “I’d put Harry Styles on the run, he’s posted some quite fast marathon times.

“Bike wise, I think Billy Monger. He’s obviously done really well in para-tri and I’m still classing him as a celebrity. And then the swim, Gordon Ramsay wouldn’t be a bad shout. We’ve watched his Netflix documentary, and he actually enjoys swimming out!”

Watch British stars, including Alex Yee, Beth Potter, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Sophie Evans, race at the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) London on Saturday 25 July, with Olympic qualifying points on the line. The elite women start at 1430 and the elite men go at 1615, with live coverage on Triathlonlive.tv and TNT Sports in the UK.