TRIATHLON – BAHRAIN Victorious 13 superstars Kat Matthews and Marten Van Riel claimed outstanding victories in their respective race categories at the Ironman 70.3 Elsinore in Denmark.
Matthews put in a sensational performance in her run leg to make a late charge for the win in the pro women’s event, while Van Riel was in dominant form to triumph comfortably amongst the pro men.
Their results earned an incredible double for Bahrain Victorious 13, founded on the vision of His Majesty King Hamad’s humanitarian work and youth affairs representative and Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Matthews fell behind by more than three minutes after her swim and bike legs, but the reigning Ironman Pro Series champion erased the deficit within the opening three kilometres of her run before charging to the win in a total race time of four hours two minutes and 57 seconds.
She completed the opening 1.9-kilometre swim in 26 minutes and four seconds, then had a mark of 2:15:10 in the 89.7km bike ride. The Briton then posted a blistering 1:16:36 half marathon to cross the line 35 seconds clear of her nearest rival.
“I felt like I had a really good start – I saw lots of colours around me, which means, to my mind, I’m in a good place at the first buoy, and I cruised for the rest of it, but I was quite disappointed in my bike to be honest,” said Matthews.
“The plan was to do what I can to get to the front, but I absolutely did not expect that I felt so bad on the bike, so there were lots of challenges.
“Getting out of transition, I was running and I thought it was fine, I was running well but I don’t feel great, but then suddenly one of the pro men went by me and then ‘Bam!’ – switch on and go! I just ran with him until it was eight km or something.”
Katrine Christensen from Denmark was the runner-up in 4:03:33 while Lena Meissner from Germany took the final podium step in 4:04:55.
In the pro men’s race, Van Riel extended his unbeaten streak over the 70.3 distance, securing his sixth consecutive victory and punching his ticket to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
The Belgian positioned himself in the lead group during the swim before smashing the standing bike record to build an unassailable advantage.
He then controlled the run to win by a minute and 14 seconds as well as set a new course record of 3:36:03. His swim-bike-run splits were 21:55, 1:58:04, and 1:11:31.
“I kept the streak alive but it wasn’t easy today,” Van Riel said post-race. “At the start of the bike, I went full on crazy mode. It was really hard and I had to really use a bullet there. The rest of the bike, I was quite cooked, but I was very happy with the company of a very strong Valdemar (Solok).
“It was full gas in the run because, in the beginning, Valdemar started running with me so he also didn’t make it easy for me, but I could control it a little bit once I had a solid gap to him.”
Solok, from Denmark, took second in 3:37:18 while Simon Viain from France was third in 3:39:00.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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