IRONMAN 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun results 2025: Matthews and Kraft take the titles

Kat Matthews showed she’s right on track for the IRONMAN World Championship with a clear-cut victory at 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun in Austria, her third victory of a near-perfect season so far.

She triumphed by nearly four minutes from Lisa Perterer (AUT), with Solveig Løvseth (NOR) in third.

The Briton, who won IRONMAN Texas in April and 70.3 Swansea in July, has also now moved to the top of the IRONMAN Pro Series, a title she won in 2024.

This was the last ‘regular season’ Pro Series race of 2025 ahead of the World Championships and in the men’s event it was Fabian Kraft of Germany who made it two wins on the trot following last month’s success at 70.3 Sweden.

He made his move early on the run and wasn’t threatened after that point, seeing off Gregor Payet (FRA) by nearly three minutes, with Nick Thompson (AUS) rounding out the podium.

Pro Women – Kat a class apart

One of Matthews’ main rivals had expected to be Anne Reischmann but the German didn’t feel well in the morning and elected not to start the race, which began at 11:05 local time.

The clear waters of Lake Zell hosted the swim in picturesque surroundings and early on Rebecca Clarke (AUS), Lena Meißner (GER) and Daisy Davies (GBR) opened up a small gap.

But by the time they exited the water it was a 10-woman group and both Matthews and Løvseth, who has made such an impression since moving up in distance, were both in it.

It was no surprise to see Matthews move to the front of the field early on the hilly bike course but what was unexpected was Løvseth losing lots of ground.

She was soon three minutes adrift and it was home favourite Perterer who emerged as Kat’s main rival, bridging up after 58km and staying with her all the way into T2.

Løvseth meanwhile was locked with Nina Derron (SUI) in the battle for third, 3:43 back.

Matthews wasted little time in asserting straight away on the run as she powered clear of Perterer and never looked in any danger whatsoever from that point on.

Midway through the half marathon, Matthews was over a minute ahead of Perterer while Løvseth continued to struggle and was now six minutes adrift.

And the pattern continued, Matthews crossing the line in 4:08:50, with Perterer just under four minutes back and Løvseth a further three minutes after that.

Pro Men – Kraft one to watch

Kraft’s step up in distance couldn’t have gone much better this season, with two seconds and a first from three races. And the form of the win last time out at 70.3 Sweden, when he beat Sam Dickinson, was franked by the latter’s third place at T100 French Riviera.

But the men’s race was marked by there being virtually nothing between a big group on the swim and then the bike.

Jannik Schaufler (GER) led out the swim in 23:06, but the front 14 were all within 20 seconds.

The story continued on the bike. All 14 stayed together for first 15km, with Kraft taking more than his fair share of turns on the front.

They’d been reduced to eight by T2, with just 12 seconds separating them.

But then it all changed on the run when Kraft open up a bit of a gap – 15 seconds to Kevin McDowell (USA) and Payet.

And that gap gradually increased the further they went, with Kraft having plenty of time to soak in his latest victory as he crossed the line in 3:44:31.

Payet was on his own in second, 2:43 back, but McDowell tied up badly and dropped from third to sixth in the last kilometre as Thompson came through to take the final spot on the podium.