Huge win for Tamara Jewett at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside
Canadian runs incredible 1:13 half-marathon to take biggest win of her career
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
Canadian Tamara Jewett (pictured above at last year’s Ironman 70.3 World Championship) has laid claim to the sport’s fastest runner (certainly for half-distance races, anyway) for a few years now. While her amazing ability in the third leg of the race have helped the former national team runner to a few 70.3 wins and a number of podiums, she’s often struggled to be close enough to the world’s top triathletes starting the run to utilize her speed. That all changed today, though, as Jewett surged past some of the world’s top 70.3 athletes to take the biggest win of her career at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside.
Lawrence super in the swim
Included amongst that group of “top 70.3 athletes” was 2016 Ironman 70.3 World Champion Holly Lawrence, who blasted through the swim in the chilly 56-degree (F) water 1:28 up on the rest of the women. Matthews would lead the chase at 1:28 down, with Canadians Paula Findlay and Jewett right on her heels, with reigning Ironman world champion Chelsea Sodaro (USA) one more second back.
Findlay would push hard early on in the bike, with Matthews marking her move and Sodaro and Jewett staying close, too. It wasn’t until they were 60 km into the bike, though, that the group was finally able to catch up to Lawrence. Over the final 30 km the group was able to open up a bit of a gap to the fast-running Jewett – Matthews would hit T2 in the lead, with Findlay and Lawrence about five-seconds back, Sodaro 21-seconds behind, while Jewett would get to transition 1:15 behind.
All Jewett on the run
Knowing full well what was in the cards, the four women in front surged out of transition, with Matthews initially pushing the way ahead of Lawrence. Sodaro, a former collegiate running star herself, quickly took the lead, though. At 3.5 km she was eight seconds up on Matthews, with Lawrence at 24 seconds, but Jewett had already surged past her countrywoman Findlay into fourth, and was only 46-seconds down.
Jewett would continue to fly through the run – Sodaro would try to stay with the Canadian as she passed, but there was simply no touching Jewett’s 1:13 run split (that’s a 5:34/ mile  or 3:28/ km pace). Jewett would cross the line in 4:08:09, with Sodaro running an impressive-enough 1:15:21 split to take second in 4:09:31. Matthews would round out the podium in 4:12:27, a huge finish in her comeback after a terrible car crash derailed her 2022 season. Lawrence would take fourth in 4:16:32, while Findlay rounded out the top five in 4:21:52.
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