She took the lead during the swim, lost it during the bike and thanks to strong running legs, it still eventually was Kat Matthews who ran very strongly to victory at Ironman 70.3 Swansea.
Matthews came out of the water after 26:28 minutes and then had a 35-second lead over a group of pursuers: Lizzie Rayner, Olivia Mitchell, Jade Nicole Roberts, Tara Grosvenor and Ruth Astle. The latter was the only one of that group who was able to connect on the bike and so a lead group of two was formed.
Matthews and Astle did not stay together for very long, because their lead on the other chasing ladies quickly increased but apparently Astle was searching for more speed. After about seventy kilometers she accelerated and that proved just a bit too much for Matthews. In the last twenty kilometers on the bike, Astle managed to grab a lead of over one and a half minutes on Matthews. Lydia Dant followed as the third woman into T2 and was then 3:19 minutes behind.
During the run, the race changed completely again and Matthews quickly took back the lead. After a few kilometers, her deficit had turned into a considerable lead. That lead only grew, although that also had to do with Astle experiencing a tough half marathon and eventually handing over her second spot to Dant.
In the end, Matthews won the race in 4:25:09, Dant got second in 4:27:51 and Astle got third in 4:30:35.
