Matthews Charges to IRONMAN New Zealand Win and Course Record

As with the men’s race, the reigning IRONMAN Pro Series champ, Kat Matthews (the only woman to ever win the pro series), made the trip to Taupo with one goal in mind – get the 5,000 points for the win. And, as with the men’s race, the rest of the women weren’t exactly ready to hand the win over – seemingly determined to put pressure on the Brit right from the gun.

With that in mind, a group of five pushed through the swim, hoping to open as much of a gap as possible. At the front were Brit Fenella Langridge, Lotte Wilms (NED) and Kiwis Hannah Berry, Rebecca Clarke and Hannah Knighton (a local athlete competing in her first IRONMAN race). The group managed to open up a gap of almost a minute by the half-way point of the swim and opened up more time before they were done. Matthews found herself 2:39 down as she started the long run to transition, with defending women’s champion Regan Hollioake close behind. Canadian Tamara Jewett had a great swim, finishing 3:23 down, five seconds ahead of two-time IRONMAN New Zealand champ Jocelyn McCauley.

Surprisingly, Britain’s Stephanie Clutterbuck struggled through the swim, coming out of the water five seconds behind American Danielle Lewis – the two were over 11 minutes down as they headed up to T2. Clutterbuck would end up pulling out on the bike.

Once out on the bike Berry pushed the pace and quickly opened up a gap on the other lead swimmers, and holding Matthews to almost a three-minute deficit through the first few climbs out of Taupo. It didn’t take long, though, for Matthews to start moving to the front. Berry would have to pull off to the side of the road to fix a dropped chain, at which point Wilms moved ahead. Shortly after that, though, Matthews would move to the front.

Wilms and Berry weren’t ready to let Matthews ride clear, though, and the three would steadily pull away from the rest of the field. Through 90 km it looked like some of the fast runners in the field might stay close – Maja Stage Nielsen was 4:33 down in fifth, Jewett was in ninth, 10:01 behind, while Lewis had managed to ride at the same pace as Matthews and was at 11:06 behind.

The second half of the bike, though, separated the cyclists from the rest, and by the end of the bike it was Berry who arrived into T2 first, with Matthews six seconds behind (she would have the day’s fastest ride at 4:38:01) and Wilms another seven seconds back. Defending champ Hollioke would arrive in T2 just over five minutes down, with Lewis continuing her strong showing during the land-segments of the race, in fifth, 12:55 behind. After their strong first halves of the ride, Stage Nielsen would arrive in eighth at 19:21, with Jewett next in at 20:38 back from the lead.

Matthews Moves

Once on the run, though, Matthews was off like a shot, running as fast as fast as many of the pro men. By 7 km into the run she was 1:42 up on Berry, with Wilms at 3:04 behind. Through just over the halfway point Matthews was running at roughly 2:50 marathon pace and was in full cruise mode. Berry was hanging tough at 4:15 back, with Wilms still in third at seven minutes. At that point Hollioake remained in fourth, but was 16:44 behind and needed to worry about Lewis (18:37 behind) and Jewett (18:45 back).

Over the last half of the run Matthews continued to cruise along, running so well she even paced men’s winner Trevor Foley for about a mile, and never even remotely looked threatened for the win. Berry remained rock solid, looking to break the three-hour barrier for the first time in her career. Wilms also remained solid, but suddenly found herself having to hold off the fast charging Jewett – the Canadian scorched through the run at 2:44 pace.

Matthews would slow a bit over the last half of the race, but was still well clear as she crossed the line in 8:28:55, obliterating Chelsea Sodaro’s course record (8:40:07). Berry would thrill the hometown crowd with a solid second (8:35:43), also breaking the old course record, with Wilms rounding out the podium, holding off Jewett’s charge – the Canadian would end up a shade under 2:43 – the fifth-fastest run of the day.

“It went to plan,” Matthews said of her impressive day. “As much as it look controlled, you have to work really hard, and I had so much empathy for everyone out there doing the marathon. It’s always hard.”

“The community here is incredible – you feel so welcomed, which was one of the reasons for coming back,” the champion continued, referring to her runner-up finish at the 70.3 worlds in 2024. “Last time, coming second, I really wanted to come back and win.”

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