Taylor Knibb three-peats at 70.3 worlds, Jelle Geens steals men’s title on the run
Canadians Paula Findlay and Tamara Jewett both finished in the top 10 in Taupo
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
It was a thrilling couple of days of racing in Taupo, New Zealand, at the 2024 Ironman 70.3 World Championship. American Taylor Knibb lived up to the hype and flew to her third straight 70.3 world title, while on the men’s side, Belgium’s Jelle Geens used a 1:07 half-marathon to blow by hometown favourite Hayden Wilde in the closing kilometres of the race to take the win. Canadians Paula Findlay and Tamara Jewett both notched top-10 results in the stacked field, finishing sixth and ninth, respectively.
Knibb gets the hat-trick
Spain’s Sara Perez Sala led the women out of the water, completing the 1.9-kilometre swim in 24:20. Despite taking a lead into T1, she had no breathing room, with multiple women just seconds back. One of these women was Knibb, who wasted no time moving to the front of the race on the bike course.
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By the halfway mark on the ride, Knibb had built a lead of close to two minutes over Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds and Britain’s Kat Matthews, the two next-closest competitors. Matthews and Simmonds finished second and third at the 2023 70.3 worlds, and they were both looking to be the one to ruin Knibb’s bid for a third consecutive title.
Knibb entered T2 after a 2:10:09 bike split. This blazing-fast effort gave her a massive lead of 4:39 over Simmonds and 4:52 over Matthews. The next-closest racer was Switzerland’s Julie Derron, who was more than eight minutes back of the lead after the ride.
At this point, it seemed like Knibb would cruise to yet another world title. Even after giving up a minute to Matthews in the first 10K of the run, her lead was still 3:54, and it looked as though Matthews had no option but to settle for second. Despite the big gap, Matthews kept her eyes on the win and laid down a tremendous performance, eating away at Knibb’s once-substantial lead.
At the 15-kilometre checkpoint, Knibb was only 2:35 ahead of Matthews. At 18 kilometres, the lead was just over two minutes. At 20K, it was 1:44, and by the finish, Matthews had clawed to within 75 seconds of the win. It was a valiant effort by the Brit, but Knibb would not be denied a third straight world championship crown.
Knibb crossed the line in 3:57:34. Matthews finished in second in 3:58:49 (featuring a stellar 1:15:34 half-marathon split), and Australia’s Ashleigh Gentle used a 1:16 half-marathon to climb onto the podium in third in 4:03:01. Findlay finished in sixth place in 4:07:12 and Jewett laid down a 1:16:12 run split to secure an impressive ninth-place result.
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Geens surprises Wilde
The men’s race saw a quick start from American Greg Harper, who flew out of the water with a 12-second lead. France’s Leo Bergere sat in third after the swim, 13 seconds back, while Wilde and Geens were both half a minute behind. Soon enough, the order was rearranged on the bike course, and in the first 10 kilometres, Bergere, Wilde, and Geens led the race in a group of nine men.
The group dwindled to eight over the next 70 or so kilometres, and by T2, things had spread out a bit more, as six men were within 30 seconds of each other. Wilde entered transition with a slight lead of 13 seconds over the reigning 70.3 world champion, Germany’s Rico Bogen. Geens was 17 seconds back and Bergere was 24 seconds behind.
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Wilde hammered the run right from the start, extending his lead over the field with every passing kilometre. He record an opening 10K split of 30:59, and his lead was 55 seconds over Geens. Over the next five kilometres, that gap remained more or less the same. By the 16-kilometre checkpoint, Wilde’s advantage was down to 41 seconds over Geens. With just five kilometres to go, this seemed like it would be enough to carry Wilde to the win, but less than a kilometre down the road, Geens had cut the lead to 25 seconds.
Another kilometre later, Geens was two seconds behind the drained and exhausted Wilde. Geens made the pass and quickly put time into Wilde, cruising toward the finish line. By the end of the race, Geens’s advantage over Wilde was more than a minute. He crossed the line, triumphant, in 3:32:09, thanks to a magnificent 1:07:34 run split.
Wilde finished in second place in 3:33:22 after a gutsy effort that fell just short. Bergere rounded out the podium in 3:35:08.