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Kat Matthews puts herself in position to win Ironman and T100 Series with big win at Vitoria-Gasteiz

In an up and down year that's included injury and mishap, the British star takes her second Ironman title of 2024

Photo by: Kevin Mackinnon

It’s been an up and down season for Great Britain’s Kat Matthews, but things are definitely more on the “up” side of things after a big win at Ironman Vitoria-Gasteiz today. At the start of the year Matthews (pictured above on her way to a second-place finish at T100 San Francisco) said she would go after top finishes in both the T100 Triathlon World Tour and the Ironman Pro Series. While she’ll still have lots of work to do on the T100 front, she now has two Ironman wins to take into Nice, which puts her ahead of any other women at this point.

World champ DQ’d, record-setting bike split … and lots more drama at Ironman Vitoria-Gasteiz!

Clutterbuck leads the swim

Another Brit, new pro Stephanie Clutterbuck, led the women out of the water, with Matthews a whopping 4:27 back with Els Visser (NED) bouncing back from her third-place finish at Challenge Roth last weekend in style, coming out of the water right behind Matthews.

It was Ruth Astle (yes, another British athlete!) who would lead the way off the bike, with Matthews just a few seconds behind and Germany’s Daniela Bleymehl 49 seconds back, with Visser at 1:05.

Matthews unstoppable on the run

Out on the run course it quickly became apparent that no one would touch Matthews as she cruised through an impressive 2:54:40 marathon to win in 8:24:23. That put her over eight minutes up on Visser (8:32:29), with Astle making a comeback after over a year of injury issues with a solid third-place finish (8:38:07). Bleymehl would take fourth in 8:41:12, just a few seconds of a fast charging Simone Mitchell (GBR), who’s 2:56:35 marathon split got her across the line in 8:41:39.

Today’s win will move Matthews way up in the Ironman Pro Series standings, an amazing achievement considering she tore her calf at T100 Miami to start her season, then was DQ’d at Ironman Hamburg for passing in a non-passing zone.