Kat Matthews suffered another World Championship near-miss when a calf issue scuppered her hopes at the 70.3 Worlds in Marbella.
The British star has enjoyed another sensational season – until Spain she hadn’t been out of the first two in five races.
But a world title has just eluded her – she has been second in the last two IRONMAN World Championships, the latest when just 35 seconds behind Solveig Løvseth in Kona four weeks ago.
And she headed into the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship on the Costa del Sol on the back of runner-up finishes in the previous two editions, both times to Taylor Knibb.
Flying start comes to juddering halt
Knibb and Lucy Charles-Barclay had both blown up in the searing heat and humidity in Kona last time out after dominating the race before Løvseth and Matthews ran through late on to finish first and second.
But all four women made it to the start line in Marbella and more than that, LCB and Knibb both bossed it again up front.
Starting the run Matthews in third had a deficit of just under four minutes to make up on the pair of them but she had erased more than a minute of that inside the first 5km.
And to put that into context Kat had run 3:46 quicker than Knibb at the 70.3 Worlds in New Zealand late last year so it very much looked game on.
But disaster would strike soon after as Matthews pulled up suddenly with what looked an issue with her left calf.
She sat on the roadside to try and work on it and did get moving again but it was obvious she was in pain and severely hampered.
She quickly dropped down the field and unfortunately exited the race as Charles-Barclay went on to claim a second 70.3 Worlds title as she denied Knibb a fourth straight success.
‘It never seems fair does it?’
Matthews’ husband Mark was roadside to help and console her when the DNF happened and soon afterwards he was on social media to explain the background.
After thanking people for the “lovely messages” they’d sent to Kat, he said: “About 12 days ago, 10 days ago, she strained her calf and we’ve been managing it – and she’s had a few good runs this week.
“But it’s fairly obvious what it was, it wasn’t just cramp. I think she’s strained or has a small tear in her calf. The other one – it never seems fair does it?
“Anyway she’s okay, she’s at the hotel with her brother.”
The reference to the “other one” could be rewinding back to early last year when she was forced out of Miami T100 with what proved to be a calf tear.
While a hugely disappointing outcome for Kat, there was the significant silver lining of collecting a $200,000 bonus for winning the IRONMAN Pro Series for the second season in succession.
She had been in a commanding position pre-race and Løvseth needed to get within 100 seconds of the Marbella winner to overhaul her. In the event, the Norwegian finished nearly 10 minutes back in sixth.
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