As has often been the case lately, it might not have looked like it during the swim and bike legs, but Kat Matthews has won Ironman 70.3 Elsinore in a highly impressive fashion. While her first two disciplines were somewhat disappointing, she set the record straight during the half marathon and ran her way to an impressive overall victory.
Of course, that run has always proven to be Matthews’ greatest weapon, and today showed once again why. After the swim – where Natalie van Coevorden clocked the fastest time in 24:15 and the Dutch Lotte Wilms also had a great connection with a time of 24:20 – Matthews was tenth, 1:48 minutes behind.
At the front, Wilms and the Belgian Hanne de Vet started to push the pace, together with Lena Meissner, Marta Sanchez, and Audrey Merle, forcing Fenella Langridge and Van Coevorden to let the lead group go. Meanwhile, Matthews was not getting any closer; in fact, the opposite happened, as she lost another twenty seconds over the first forty kilometers on the bike.
Up front, the women stayed together, now joined by Katrine Graesboll Christensen, who rode incredibly strong to the front after starting the bike leg nearly four minutes behind and thus well behind Matthews at the time. By the time Matthews returned to T2, the eventual winner had moved up to seventh place, but she undoubtedly had to scratch her head because of her deficit, which had now grown to three minutes.
But those three minutes vanished like the proverbial snow under the equally proverbial scorching sun of Elsinore; Matthews immediately began catching women and within eight kilometers she had surged into first place.
Not that she started taking it easy then, because seemingly completely focused – though she even gave a high-five here and there to enthusiastic Age Group Athletes – she powered through as if her life depended on it. She had to, because Graesboll Christensen held her ground well and managed to keep her deficit at around twenty seconds for a long time.
As a result, Matthews could never take it easy and simply had to keep pushing. Something she managed to do brilliantly, by the way, because she eventually switched into cruise control and won the race in a time of 4:02:57. Graesboll Christensen finished second in 4:03:33, and Meissner came in third in 4:04:55
