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Katrina Matthews put together a stellar performance to take 4th at the World Championship IM70.3

Katrina Matthews added a 4th place in the IM70.3 World Championship St. George to her tally in what had been an already impressive 2021 season. The BMC athlete charged her way through the field on the bike to battle for the podium on the run. A outstanding performance which resulted in a 4:10:46 finishing time. Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR; 4:00:20) broke the tape to claim the World Championship title with Jeanni Metzler (RSA; 4:08:39) and Taylor Knibb (USA; 4:08:50) next to her on the podium.

Stellar performance

After the dazzling Long Distance World Championship title of Kristian Hogenhaug in Almere last week, it was teammate Katrina Matthews set to take to the starting line of the IM70.3 World Championship. The warm water of Sand Hollow Reservoir made for a non-wetsuit swim. Katrina came out of the water in 15th place, 2’20 back of the first chase group. In the first 21k of the bike, Katrina moved up 3 spots and started to get into her rhythm. Just before the halfway mark, Matthews came through in 9th place and was only 1’30 back of top 4 at that point. A fast second half of the bike, saw the BMC athlete move up even further. After passing the athletes in front of her and claiming 4th place, Katrina even managed to open up a small gap in the final kilometers towards T2. After a quick transition, she started the run only 30 seconds down on Ryf in 3rd. While the rain was crushing down, the British athlete was feeling it on the run. She immediately overtook Ryf to claim 3rd place. A few kilometers later, Kat had to settle for 4th as a hard charging Metzler made the pass for third. Halfway through the run, Katrina had managed to extend her advantage over Pallant in 5th to 37 seconds. As the kilometers went by and the finish line came closer, that gap became bigger and bigger. Katrina Matthews kept her pace high enough to stay well in control of 4th place. After a stellar performance and very strong bike-run combo, she crossed the finish line of the IM70.3 World Championship in a time of 4:10:46.

The hardest race I have ever done

Afterwards Katrina Matthews admitted 4th place was the highest possible today. “That was the hardest race I’ve ever done. It was a World Championship, so obviously, it should be a hard race. To be out there and represent everyone who supported me this year, feels great. It really was a privilege to perform here today. I’m really happy with 4th. There is no way I could have gone on that podium today, so 4th was the best I had in me. I’m just really excited about what I can do next”.

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