Kat Matthews showed why she was the clear-cut favourite as she claimed an emphatic victory at IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea.

The Brit was the women’s winner of the IRONMAN Pro Series last year and this latest success puts her right on track for a repeat in 2025.

She did have just over two minutes to make up after the swim but wasted little time in powering to the front on the bike and never looked in any danger after that.

But there were two remarkable performances just in behind – Rebecca Anderbury (GBR) notched the best result of her pro career to date with a breakout second place and Daniela Kleiser (GER) underlined her position as the best middle-distance runner in the sport with a 1:14:31 half marathon to jump up to third.

Swim – Munday leads swim pack

Conditions were perfect in Wales, with a warm – but not blazing hot – sunny day.

That made for a non-wetsuit swim and it was Hannah Munday (GBR) who led the way along with Daisy Davies (GBR) and Hanne De Vet (BEL).

They were closely followed by British trio Jasmine Holmes, Molly Savill and Lizzie Rayner along with Aussie Hannah Knighton, with just 12 seconds covering the first seven.

In eighth was Matthews who was two minutes and 14 seconds adrift.

Bike – Kat pounces past her rivals

The bike was all about Matthews.

She had bridged up to the leaders by the 40km point, with a front group of four also featuring Davies, Rayner and De Vet.

Anne Reischmann (GER) was 2:10 back in fifth with Kleiser nearly eight minutes back.

Over the next 10km Matthews surged into the lead – she was 53 seconds to the good after 50km and had over two minutes on the chasers at 74km.

Davies dropped right out of contention unfortunately following a puncture and then a problem with the valve when trying to fix it.

But moving in the other direction was Anderbury, who had joined the chasers.

And by the time they left T2 Matthews led by 2:18 from Anderbury, with Reischmann at +2:38, Rayner at +3:14 and De Vet in fifth at +7:13 while Kleiser now had over 10 minutes to make up.

Run – Kleiser cuts through the field

Given those splits Matthews was unlikely to be put under too much pressure and that was how it proved.

But Anderbury was almost matching her pace and the gap between the front two remained pretty static for the first half.

Even after that it never went much above three minutes and the big question was how many athletes Kleiser would overhaul.

Her 1:14:31 half marathon was six-and-a-half minutes quicker than Matthews and even more on the rest and it meant she moved all the way up to third, overhauling Reischmann inside the last kilometre.

IRONMAN 70.3 Swansea 2025 Results

Sunday 13 July 2025 – 1.9km / 90km / 21.1km

PRO Women

• 1. Kat Matthews (GBR) – 4:20:37 [26:57 / 2:26:34 / 1:21:02]
• 2. Rebecca Anderbury (GBR) – 4:23:54 [28:48 / 2:27:06 / 1:22:00]
• 3. Daniela Kleiser (GER) – 4:24:33 [32:23 / 2:31:11 / 1:14:31]
• 4. Anne Reischmann (GER) – 4:24:47 [28:22 / 2:28:32 / 1:22:33]
• 5. Lizzie Rayner (GBR) – 4:28:33 [24:53 / 2:31:43 / 1:25:43]