The day had begun perfectly for Lucy Charles-Barclay at the IRONMAN World Championship.
The winner the last time the women’s race was held in Kona, the Briton produced another swim masterclass to lead the field by 90 seconds.
The momentum continued on the bike, with American Taylor Knibb – a relative rookie at the distance – the only other athlete able to stay close to her.
The two would then trade the lead before a yellow card penalty for “unintentional littering” for LCB started to change things – but that was nothing compared to the drama which would follow.
Iron war
Starting the run in Hawaii and the temperature had climbed into 82 degrees Fahrenheit while the humidity was now over 70%.
But early on Charles-Barclay made short work of cutting into a gap of 1:43 on Knibb.
So much so that well before the 10-mile point it was LCB who moved into the lead, patting Knibb on the back as she eased to the front.
But the battle was far from over and it soon became obvious that not only was Knibb battling back but Charles-Barclay was beginning to struggle.
Charles-Barclay was suddenly walking at an aid station and before the halfway point it was now Knibb who looked strongest as the two were running shoulder-to-shoulder.
The pattern continued for a while but now things started to spiral out of control for Charles-Barclay.
End of the road for Lucy
She was alternating walking with running – and she still looked impressive when it was the latter.
Taking on ice and nutrition at the aid stations wasn’t enough to reverse the trend and Knibb by now had moved over two minutes clear.
And Lucy’s race ended when husband Reece stepped in to help her decide that stopping was the sensible course of action. She’d given it absolutely everything but there had been nearly nine miles still to go.
Soon afterwards she had made her way to one of the medical vehicles to be driven back to Kona.
Incredible drama
Surely that meant that Knibb was going to achieve a lifetime ambition and take the title in what was only her third full-distance race?
When Charles-Barclay exited it meant that Knibb was around five minutes clear of Kona rookie Solveig Løvseth of Norway.
It was down to four minutes with 10km to go and now the alarm bells suddenly started to ring for Knibb even though she was tantalisingly close to the finish.
It was on the very final climb on the run, less than 4km from the line, when Knibb came to a shuddering halt as she started to weave around the road and then sunk to the tarmac.
Løvseth would run past her and eventually go on to lift the title – though only after she was given a late scare by Britain’s Kat Matthews. Read the full report here.
