TRIATHLON – BAHRAIN Victorious 13 superstar Taylor Knibb continued her sensational early season form yesterday with a dominant victory in the women’s race of the Ironman 70.3 Oceanside triathlon, held in California in the US.
Knibb not only secured an impressive win, but she also smashed the women’s course record and set a new fastest time in the bike leg for the event, which was held as the latest stop on the 2026 calendar of the Ironman Pro Series.
Her triumph came just a week after taking first place in the T100 Triathlon World Tour event in Australia, which kick-started her international campaign for this year. In Oceanside, Knibb showed why she is a three-time Ironman 70.3 world champion with her commanding performance.
The 28-year-old took the tape for the third time in the event’s history, while setting the new course best of four hours one minute and 39 seconds – beating the previous top mark of 4:06:32, which she herself set en route to winning the 2022 edition of the race.
“It was great out there – every race is fun when you win,” Knibb said after the event.
“I told my coach my ambitious plan that I wanted to set a really good 60-minute and 90-minute bike power, because I feel like this is a great course you can do it on because it flows.
“And then I wanted to average three minutes and 40 seconds per kilometre on the run, which I was doing for the first 16km, but not the last part – my wheels kind of went off.
“But sometimes you have to just go out and try, and he said, physiologically, I think you can do it, but we just have to see on the day because I raced last week and we’re preparing for Texas.
“Sometimes, you just have to try it and if you blow, you blow.”
Knibb trailed Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes in the early stages of the opening 1.9km swim leg but was not far behind, completing the section in 23 minutes 29 seconds.
The American then asserted control the moment she hit the bike, settling into her rhythm and steadily creating a comfortable gap. Knibb finished her 90km ride in a blistering 2:15:27 – shattering the old record of 2:18:00 which she shared with Daniela Ryf, a former Bahrain Victorious 13 triathlete – thus opening a nearly five‑minute advantage over the rest of the field.
She maintained her strong pace in the concluding 21.1km run, which she finished in 1:17:28 to wrap up her winning, record-breaking performance.
Knibb completed the race nearly two minutes ahead of runner-up Solveig Lovseth from Norway, who clocked a mark of 4:03:34. The leading pair were well ahead of the chasing pack at the end, with Audrey Merle of France taking third in 4:10:33.
With her result, Knibb scored maximum points to move sharply up the women’s leaderboard on the Ironman Pro Series 2026 championship standings, where she climbed 18 places to 11th with 2,500 points.
Bahrain Victorious 13 teammate Kat Matthews continues to top the table with 7,500 points.
Knibb also came away from Oceanside with $7,500 in prize money.
Knibb is next expected to get back into action in the Ironman Texas North American Championship on April 18, also in the US. It is the next stop of the Ironman Pro Series season.
On the distaff in Oceanside, ex-Bahrain Victorious 13 star Kristian Blummenfelt won the men’s race.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))