She was quite a bit tense for her Middle Distance debut, but Georgia Taylor-Brown lived up to all expectations and just won Ironman 70.3 Bahrain. In doing so, she completed a bigger celebration, as not much earlier her friend Vincent Luis won the men’s race.
Fastest swimmer of the day was Caroline Pohle, who was allowed to head for T1 after 26:23 minutes. She did not do so alone, as the German athlete was immediately followed by Natalie van Coevorden, Alice Betto, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Tanja Neubert. This leading group stayed together on the bike for a long time as well.
Yet it was Betto who was the first to lose connection with the leading group and ended up losing a lot of time as well. And while the Dutch Marlene de Boer, who had started the bike with a minute and a half behind, just rode to the front, Van Coevorden also lost the connection. In the end, Pohle, Neubert, Taylor-Brown and De Boer were the first four women to start the half marathon, all within half a minute of each other.
During that run, it quickly became apparent that Taylor-Brown and Neubert had the strongest running legs, and they remained engaged in an exciting battle with each other until the closing stages. The difference between the two was always limited to half a minute at most, so the final decision did not fall until the final kilometers.
Taylor-Brown won the race in 3:56:56. Just 22 seconds after Taylor-Brown, Neubert took second in 3:57:18. Pohle was third in 4:01:49.
