Taylor Knibb continued her rich vein of form to retain the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Finland with an accomplished front-running performance.
The American took the tape in 3:53:02 in the southern Finnish city of Lahti, 4min ahead of Britain's Kat Matthews, with Switzerland's Imogen Simmonds in third and GB's Emma Pallant-Browne in fourth.
It meant Knibb backed up her victory in St George last year, where she also dominated with a winning margin of 5min, and made her only the second woman to successfully defend the 70.3 title following five-time winner Daniela Ryf.
Matthews showed she is in the form to have a solid crack at the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii in October, having missed the event last year following a horrific bike crash in Texas. The 32-year-old's second place matched her result in the delayed 2021 Ironman worlds in St George last May, and was largely thanks to an improved swim leg and second-fastest 1:16:38 half-marathon.
Knibb was the favourite to take the title following her win in the PTO US Open in Milwaukee and securing the first qualification spot on the US Olympic team at the Paris test event last weekend.
The 25-year-old's chances were enhanced further with middle distance specialist and PTO ranked No 1 Ashleigh Gentle — who finished second to Knibb in Milwaukee and backed it up by winning the PTO Asian Open — choosing to return home to Australia after racing in Singapore.
What happened in the swim?
As the defending champion, Knibb chose to take a spot on the far end of the pontoon and it paid immediate dividends as she showed the fastest take-out speed to take an early advantage.
Britain’s Lucy Buckingham, long renowned as one of the fastest swimmers in triathlon, quickly moved on to the American’s toes and took the lead within a few hundred metres.
From there the 1.2-mile wetsuit swim quickly lined out with Buckingham and Knibb opening a gap with only Brazil’s Pamela Oliveira, Germany’s Caroline Pohle and Switzerland’s Simmonds able to stay in touch, and India Lee just off the leaders.
Buckingham was first into T1 in 24:43, closely followed by the other four women and Lee, with Australia’s Ellie Salthouse leading a big chase pack including other favoured athletes such as Ryf, Holly Lawrence, Matthews, Paula Findlay, Jewett and Pallant-Browne around 80sec back.
Behind them World Triathlon long distance champion Marjolaine Pierre was 2min behind Buckingham, and Germany’s Laura Philipp had 2min 40sec to make up from 23rd position.
What happened on the bike?
Knibb took a few extra seconds to put socks on in transition, but from then on there was no holding back as she headed into the rolling countryside on the outskirts of Lahti, quickly forged her way to the front and started to apply pressure to the chasers.
Lee withdrew early on the bike and Buckingham picked up a drafting penalty trying to stay with Knibb, as the Brit found herself in good company in the penalty tent, with Salthouse, Lawrence and Jewett also having to stand down for various infractions in the first-half of the bike leg.
Knibb continued to extend her lead as she did when winning the title in 2022 in St George. Simmonds was alone in second place but the gap from the front back to the quartet of Matthews, Findlay, Ryf and Pallant-Browne had blown out to more than 3 ½ min.
A steep climb just before T2 provided a final sting to bike leg, but hardly posed a problem for Knibb as she rolled into transition with a 2:07 split and a gap of more than 2mins over Simmonds. Matthews led the chasers over 5mins behind with Philipp nearly 7mins in arrears and her chances of the podium fading.
What happened on the run?
The two-lap undulating run course incorporated the running track at the Lahti sports centre and Knibb could have almost been running 400m efforts as only Matthews and Pallant-Browne kept pace in the early miles.
Ryf was dropping back through the field as Pierre and Germany's Anne Reischmann pushed on to try to cement their positions in the top 10.
Heading into lap two, Knibb was comfortably 4min clear of Simmonds, but the Swiss who finished fourth in Singapore last weekend and was on the podium in the 2019 Ironman 70.3 worlds in 2019, wasn't wilting either.
Matthews managed to break clear of Pallant-Browne midway through the half-marathon and then closed down Simmonds in the final miles to take second place. But there was no stopping Knibb, who despite a late toilet stop, could cruise to a second 70.3 world title.
2023 Ironman 70.3 World Champs top 10 women's results
- Taylor Knibb
- Kat Matthews
- Imogen Simmonds
- Emma Pallant-Browne
- Paula Findlay
- Laura Philipp
- Marjolaine Pierre
- Amelia Watkinson
- Daniela Ryf
- Anna Reischmann
Top image credit: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images for Ironman
