Bahrain Victorious 13 superstar Kat Matthews delivered a dominant performance at Ironman New Zealand, claiming victory in a new women’s course best time of eight hours 28 minutes and 55 seconds.
Matthews was more than 10 minutes faster than the previous mark. She controlled the second half of the race to finish nearly seven minutes clear of the field to open the defence of her Ironman Pro Series title in style.
“It’s a really good benchmark – in terms of performance over the series – 5,000 points to start the year is already positive,” said Matthews, who in 2025 secured the Ironman Pro Series crown for the second straight year.
“The energy on the run course is incredible. Even two kilometres in, I’m welling up.”
“Everyone’s so excited and so positive and so enthusiastic.”
“I was thinking, ‘Guys, calm down, please, I’ve got three hours to go. I felt like I couldn’t give back as much as I wanted to because everyone was screaming.”
“You have to find a bit of a flow in your own head space for the majority of it until you can really embrace it all, I was carried along by so many people. I was so grateful.”
Matthews is all smiles following her victory
Matthews exited the 3.8-kilometre swim in Lake Taupo a little over two minutes behind the leaders, but this was a deficit that would prove no obstacle once the race moved onto the bike.
Just 35km into the 180km bike leg, the Briton powered into the front group alongside Hannah Berry and Lotte Wilms – the other two athletes who would eventually make the women’s podium.
Off the bike just six seconds behind Berry, Matthews quickly showed her pedigree as one of the sport’s best marathon runners.
Within the first five kilometres, Matthews had already opened a minute’s gap on Berry. By the halfway mark she had extended the lead to over four minutes, and continued to pull away to finish by a margin of nearly seven minutes.
Her splits were 53 minutes 30 seconds for the swim, 4:38:01 for the bike, and 2:51:48 for the run.
Her new women’s course best beat the previous top mark held by Chelsea Sodaro, which she set in 2024.
With the first Pro Series points of the season banked, Matthews now sets her sights on an unprecedented third consecutive title.
New Zealand’s Berry finished as the runner-up in 8:35:43, while Wilms of the Netherlands came third in 8:39:57. Tamara Jewett from Canada was fourth in 8:41:20, and Danielle Lewis from the US finished fifth in 8:49:35.
At the Ironman New Zealand triathlon, professional athletes were competing for a maximum of 5,000 Ironman Pro Series points, and a share of the total event pro prize purse of $125,000.
They were also vying for four qualifying slots per gender to the 2026 Ironman World Championship triathlon in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`I, scheduled for this October.
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