Kat Matthews continued her fine form over the full distance on Sunday, as the British star took the win ahead of a top field at IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz.
The PTO World #5, who suffered a calf tear in her first race of the year at the Miami T100, bounced back with wins in Texas and Spain either side of a second place finish at the San Francisco T100.
On Sunday, the 33-year-old also broke the course record on her way to taking the tape, finishing in a time of 8:24:23 after running a phenomenal 2:54:40 marathon.
Bike for show, run for dough
In her post-race interview with IRONMAN, Matthews admitted that she struggled on the swim, but then had a great bike to set herself up for the win on the run.
“I had a bad swim, I felt disconnected, but I felt like I was having fun on the bike. My peers Els [Visser] and Daniela Bleymehl were taking turns, and I just thought it was so fair, so honest, a great course.
“And the run, it was just a ‘get through it’ kind of day, […], the course is crazy, and I didn’t know where I was, I almost didn’t look at my watch, and I was just thinking about seeing the crowd.”
Eyes on the prize
Gunning for the IRONMAN Pro Series title this season, Matthews said her goal for the race had been to secure the maximum 5,000 points, which she did in style.
“I came here to get the 5,000 points in the Pro Series, that was honestly the only goal and I found it quite hard to go into a race with that as the goal, just to win.”
With two wins from two so far on the Pro Series, Matthews is next set to race at the London T100 on July 27, before turning her attention back to IRONMAN racing.
“I’m really chuffed to have done two Ironmans, picked up 10,000 points and now I have a IRONMAN 70.3 European Championship coming up in Tallinn next.”
