‘No regrets’ – Taylor Knibb on when you put two RACERS together at Kona

Taylor Knibb said she “wouldn’t change a thing” after getting tantalisingly close to a first IRONMAN World Championship title in Kona.

In what was just her third full-distance race, the American phenom – who is already a three-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion – vied for the lead for much of the bike and run with 2023 winner Lucy Charles-Barclay.

Knibb had moved two minutes clear past the halfway mark of the marathon when Charles-Barclay, who was suffering from the heat and humidity of Hawaii and the intensity of their battle, was pulled out of the race by her husband Reece.

That looked to have given Knibb more of a buffer but she would suffer in similar fashion – just 4km from the finish – and could only watch as Solveig Løvseth ran past on her way to victory.

‘No regrets’

And speaking on the Feisty x Hoka post-race panel podcast a day later, Knibb was first asked the most important question – how was she feeling and had she recovered? To which she replied: “I don’t think you recover in a night from that. I guess I’m as good as I can be and I just need to respect my body the next six months.

When asked what she recalls of the closing stages, Knibb said that with just over 10km left: “I knew it was getting tough and I was doing the math in my head and thought ‘ok, if I can do 4:30 kilometres then I’ll be good, I’ll be okay as I had 20 seconds per kilometre back to Solveig.

“Then I walked an aid station but realised I lost way too much time in that – and thought if I keep walking, I may not get running again.

“So I thought just have no regrets because I did not want to get second. And I did not get second!

“All my observed measurements were apparently impeccable – apart from my core body temperature.”

Rough day for Dan

Rewinding to earlier on the run Knibb said that when Charles-Barclay had overtaken her, she didn’t think she’d see her again until the finish.

Knibb explained: “I was just trying to run my race, run my pace, and I was very shocked to come up on Lucy again because I figured when she passed my on Palani, well there she goes, title number two, congrats.

“When I caught back up to her we were running together for a while but I could tell ‘ooh, she’s hurting’.

“We were at about halfway and I was thinking at that point that we have the same coach [Dan Lorang] but we do nothing together – we do all different workouts. So I thought it’s kind of ironic that he got us to the same place at the same time.”

Given what came later – or soon after for Lucy – Knibb added: “He [Dan] had a rough day. I think he may have had the worse day!”

Just to give that context – Lorang’s two athletes had bossed most of the race and he had the one-two in Kona in 2023 when Charles-Barclay beat Anne Haug. His record in the sport is unrivalled too but this must have been a tough one for him, though as he posted on Instagram a day afterwards, alongside a photo of Knibb and LCB, perspective is everything:  “Just happy and full of thankfulness to see these smiling faces!!”

‘I wouldn’t change a thing’

Charles-Barclay was indeed hurting and Knibb knew before nearly everyone that Lucy had likely been pulled out of the race, saying: “I had a two-minute lead on her but as was I exiting the Energy Lab, I saw Reece [Barclay] on a bike going down there, which was unusual since it’s restricted. And I thought there is only one reason why he’s going down there. So I kind of knew before anyone told me.

“And I found out later that Dan’s wife was watching the race and had called him, saying Lucy needed to be pulled as she looked awful. Dan couldn’t get in, but Reece figured out how to enter, and Dan sent a medical car down for her.”

Knibb herself wasn’t quite able to make it to the line but added: “At a certain point you just stop looking at your watch and you gotta race it.

“And that’s probably a danger but that’s why I really respect Lucy because she’s a racer like me. When you put two racers together, sometimes it results in good times, sometimes it’ll be like yesterday, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”