Kat Matthews took silver at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Taupo, New Zealand today to become the inaugural Ironman Pro Series champion.
After Ironman wins in Texas and Vitoria-Gasteiz and runner-up finishes at the Ironman World Championships and the Ironman 70.3 European Championships Tallin, Matthews was in prime position to top the Series and claim a USD $200,000 bonus. But it was still all to play for on the challenging world championship course.
Emerging from the 1.9-kilometre swim only 43 seconds down from the front, Matthews quickly set to work riding up the field into the pointy end behind Imogen Simmonds and race leader Taylor Knibb, who was putting time into the rest of the field.
Hopping off the 90-kilometre bike leg in third with less than a five-minute deficit, Matthews moved into second place and began chipping away. Halfway through the run the gap was down to less than three minutes. She recorded the day’s fastest half-marathon and broke her own personal best, finishing just under 90 seconds behind Knibb.
This is also her fourth vice world title, after silver finishes at the Ironman World Championships in Nice this year and St. George in 2022 and at the 2023 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Lahti, Finland.
Matthews said post-race, “I'm really proud to finish the year with the goal that we set out at the start, and I think it means more than it maybe looks on paper. Pulling that together with everything else going on throughout the year has been a real logistical challenge as well as a physical one. The Pro series – the funding behind it and our reward – really enables us to travel to places like New Zealand and to do these races properly with professionalism and considering our health as well as our performance on race day. So I'm really proud to have set the bar for the future years of the Pro Series.”
Hayden Wilde lines up tomorrow in his hometown to race an Ironman 70.3 World Championship for the first time. However, he has competed on this course previously, placing third in 2019. Team mate Henri Schoeman joins Wilde on the start line.
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