Georgia Taylor-Brown won on her middle-distance debut as she and partner Vincent Luis made it a memorable double by taking the titles at IRONMAN 70.3 Bahrain on Friday.

Britain’s Taylor-Brown, this year’s supertri champion who has gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals, was in the mix throughout but took command on the second half of the run to ease clear of German duo Tanja Neubert and Caroline Pohle.

And Frenchman Luis, who won in Bahrain in 2022 in what was his last 70.3 race, paced his half marathon perfectly as he chased down Mathis Margirier (FRA) and Wilhelm Hirsch (GER).

Pro Men – Luis aces it on the run

The one-loop swim in front of “Reef Island” saw Luis emerge first from the water, just ahead of Johannes Vogel (GER) and Henri Schoeman (RSA) but the leading seven were covered by 39 seconds.

It was even closer on the bike as a group of seven were locked together midway through before Margirier and Hirsch broke clear.

And they were able to put a minute and a half into the rest by the time they reached T2, with Luis in the chase pack behind.

But it didn’t take Luis long to start cutting into the gap – he pulled back 15 seconds in the first 3km of the run and maintained that progress with a perfectly paced half marathon which saw him first overtake Hirsch at 14km to move into second before locking his sights on Margirier.

And the catch came with just over 2km remaining as Luis smoothly moved into the lead en route to a 1:06:52 half marathon.

Luis had talked in the pre-race press conference about potentially beating the ‘world record’ 70.3 time of 3:26:06 set by Marten Van Riel when he triumphed in Dubai in 2022 but that was never really under threat as he stopped the clock in 3:32:16.

But the win underlines just what a threat he will be now that he moves up to this distance permanently after a stellar short-course career.

Pro Women – GTB makes it look easy on debut

It was close throughout the women’s race – just a handful of seconds covered the first five in the swim, which comprised the three who would end up on the podium plus Italy’s Alice Betto and Australia’s Natalie Van Coevorden.

On the bike it was down to four as Betto dropped out of contention but early on the run it looked to be between Taylor-Brown, Neubert and Pohle, who came into this race on the back of a trio of wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Tallinn, IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See and Challenge Barcelona.

But Pohle would be first to crack as Neubert and Taylor-Brown went head-to-head.

And it was the debutant who eased clear in the closing stages to register a 1:14:28 in her first half marathon to win by 22 seconds.

That earned her a place in the 2025 70.3 World Championships in Marbella but when we see Taylor-Brown take on her next middle-distance race remains to be seen as she’s yet to reveal next year’s plans.

IRONMAN 70.3 Bahrain 2024 results

Friday November 29, 2024

Pro Men

• 1. Vincent Luis (FRA) – 3:32:16 (22:36 / 1:59:25 / 1:06:52)
• 2. Mathis Margirier (FRA) – 3:32:31 (23:55 / 1:56:31 / 1:08:49)
• 3. Wilhelm Hirsch (GER) – 3:33:18 (22:53 / 1:57:43 / 1:09:25)
• 4. Jannik Schaufler (GER) – 3:36:01 (22:53 / 1:57:43 / 1:10:46)
• 5. Kacper Stepniak (POL) – 3:36:23 (23:15 / 1:58:52 / 1:11:09)

Pro Women

• 1. Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR) – 3:56:56 (26:28 / 2:11:58 / 1:14:28)
• 2. Tanja Neubert (GER) – 3:57:18 (26:30 / 2:12:04 / 1:14:56)
• 3. Caroline Pohle (GER) – 4:01:49 (26:23 / 2:12:08 / 1:19:36)
• 4. Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS) – 4:07:13 (26:25 / 2:14:45 / 1:22:15)
• 5. Alice Betto (ITA) – 4:14:23 (26:25 / 2:26:52 / 1:16:55)